China’s Covid Pivot Sounds Like the Real Thing, Bumps and All
Covid exceptionalism has become too burdensome. Reopening will bring its own trials.
China paves way to reopening.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis pivot looks like the real thing. China is dismantling Covid restrictions and stressing a desire to revive the economy. Not before time: Beijing stuck with cumbersome pandemic defenses long after the world moved on. It enters this new phase with significant handicaps.
In a dramatic turn this week, officials eased an array of curbs on social and business activity, and stopped just short of a declaration of war on the troubling slowdown. Spurred by a loss of economic altitude — and rare public protests — home quarantine will be used more liberally and testing to enter public venues was abandoned. Underscoring the commercial imperatives behind the swivel, the Politburo emphasized the primacy of kick-starting growth.