- In January 2020, when the new coronavirus began to spread,
China implemented strict lockdowns, lengthy quarantines,
and stringent testing that stretched the patience
of Chinese citizens to the breaking point.
- [speaking Chinese]
-At the end of 2022, the price to maintain a Zero-COVID posture
became too high for Beijing's leaders.
- And it's costly not just in terms
of the actual money that you need to spend,
but also in terms of trading a huge amount of frustration,
really damaging the reputation of the leadership,
and also having huge economic costs.
- [The impact was] too much.
We have lost a lot in the past three years,
because there were no customers.
I've been longing for a let go.
However, we are still worried after easing restrictions,
and we dare not to run around these days.
Although it has been easier,
the catering industry has not recovered,
because there are still few people.
We'll wait a few days and see. - One, two.
- Frustrations spilled over in November,
when the largest protest since Tiananmen Square
broke out in dozens of Chinese cities.
- Freedom, not lockdowns! - Freedom, not lockdowns!
- Long live the people!
- And that really brought things to a head
and forced the government's hand.
- In December, Beijing scrapped a few key pillars of Zero-COVID.
- They included the mass-testing booths
that were set up across Chinese cities,
and the people had to visit on a sort of two
or three daily basis
in order just to go about their daily lives.
Also got rid of a tracing app that was used
whenever you got on public transport,
and they got rid of the requirements
to go into centralized quarantine
if you were a mild or less severe case of COVID.
- After the virus was discovered in Wuhan,
the entire city and province was locked down.
Beijing seemed to be able to contain the virus.
It worked for a time, as the rest of the world dealt
with soaring cases and deaths.
- And so, this was something of a point of pride
for the Chinese Communist party and its leader, Xi Jinping,
and he got readily behind it,
saying that this showed how superior Chinese governance is.
Really became a kind of political tool
to bolster his legitimacy.
But then, that also meant that he was trapped into it,
and as new variance came along that were more transmissible,
became harder to contain, it became hard for him
to balance this narrative of China being unique
and being able to fight back the virus with this idea
that he needed to leave it behind.
The question for China now
is how well-prepared their hospitals are.
In early December, Chinese hospitals scrambled
to contain emerging outbreaks across the country.
Since the loosening of restrictions, hospitals
are reporting a surge in patients, while hundreds
of medical staffers have contracted the virus.
- If you are in the secondary or even more remote area,
a higher care capacity is probably not adequate.
So, there will be some people who will be better, depends,
and some people will be worse off,
depending on where you are.
- Some experts now fear that a new COVID surge
in a population that has not been exposed
to the virus could lead to new variants.
- You know, that is mostly theoretical at this point,
but I think that something that both the Chinese government
and the rest of the world will be watching very closely.