Xi’s Wrong Lesson From ‘Century of Humiliation’
Rising isolationism thanks to Covid Zero will only make the country weaker, as happened in the colonial era the Communists fought to overcome.
Shanghai, a city symbolizing openness and prosperity, has labored under repeated Covid-Zero lockdowns.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg“China will not close its door to the world; we will only become more and more open.” Such was President Xi Jinping’s promise in his speech to the Communist Party’s five-yearly congress — in 2017. How things have changed.
In 2022, with Xi’s unrelenting Covid-Zero policies in full swing, China is more closed off than it has been in generations. In the 2 1/2 years since the June quarter of 2020, the total number of outbound tourists is equivalent to about one month’s worth at the end of 2019. International flights are running at levels comparable to where they were at the peak of the pandemic. Overseas visitors must still endure a minimum seven days’ government quarantine.