It is pretty much anticipated. Yeah, I think this is a game changer.
You know, I've been talking about this for quite some time as we've been
talking about the speculation of China opening up and when that would happen
and what would that look like in that top the criteria list of to check off
the boxes. It would be a change of narrative coming
from Beijing. And that is essentially what we have
gotten. We've had false dawns about the opening
up of China before, like when lockdown is lifted in a city like Shanghai.
Then the markets rejoice and the shoppers and the consumers rejoice only
to see other cities fall into lockdown. Those were so-called false dawns.
But now what we're seeing is the central government essentially is going to come
out with a nationwide blueprint for eliminating unnecessary PCR tests,
perhaps even unnecessary, you know, smartphone app checking and everywhere
across the city. That's yet to be determined.
Also, home quarantine is potentially a game changer for less high risk cases.
You can quarantine a potentially at home again.
These have not officially been announced yet.
They are in the works, according to sources close to this situation.
They could be announced as early as today.
And again, this would, in my estimation, be a game changer because the narrative
before this was always the virus has to be eliminated.
You know, squelch it, choke it off at the source, contain, contain, contain.
Now, there seems to be a shift in the narrative, OK, Omicron is not as deadly.
It's not as lethal. It is.
It is essentially. We're going to live with it.
And that's that's a game changer as far as I think it is more contagious,
however, than the original virus. And that brings us to the point about
vaccinations here and how they can M.R. and anyone.
And also, it is the elderly which are most perhaps a risk to stevia.
So they will soon marrying this with the recognition that economic development
has been hurt. Sure.
And how much of that has really propelled the authorities to change this
narrative and the mood music? Yeah, I think that's a bit of a double
barreled question. I'll answer the second part first of as
far as the the economic damage. Essentially, there's been criticism that
the Covid zero policy has been just all about containing the virus.
Now, with the Politburo coming out with a statement essentially saying Covid
curbs and Covid controls must be in lock step and I paraphrase with economic
development, tells me that that narrative now has changed.
And there's no doubt that the Covid zero policies in the containment and the two
month lockdown in Shanghai did almost irreparable damage to the economy.
Come back to that. We're just getting breaking news.
A breaking down these November numbers here.
This is you on terms right now. Imports falling one point one percent.
In yuan terms. You're looking for seven point one
percent growth here. Looking here also exports, which are
thought to have risen by about eight point two percent.
Exports actually up zero point nine percent.
And this is hugely weaker than we were looking for here as well.
And let's just wait for the dollar numbers.
But, you know, Steve, you know, this is no doubt that the lockdown zone had a
huge impact on this. And this is what we're trying to get at.
And give us your reaction to what you're seeing here, because it is a huge mess.
I think the officials in Beijing and in the Politburo meeting that they're
laying out the priorities for the National People's Congress in March.
They're seeing these numbers. They're not seeing it in a vacuum.
They say show yesterday. They saw me.
They've they. They know what's happening.
And there's been a definite trickle down effect, dampening effect on the Chinese
economy from the Covid related supply chain snarls to locking down the
consumers. And also, of course, that dovetails as
well with potential recession coming in the rest of the world.
So that export demand maybe is waning, but domestic demand.
We were just talking about how Tesla is going to be scaling back some of its
production output by as much as 20 percent because the consumer is not
feeling confident in China right now. So this is going to be a bit if these
new measures do come out and as expected, perhaps as early as today,
this should give a huge boost to the domestic consumer in China.
They'll be more confident they won't be paralyzed by going out and feeling that
they could potentially be arrested or contained, that they have to have a PCR
test just to go to the shopping mall, public transport and the like.
The consumer could come back in China with great force.