China’s Covid ICU problem
The difficulty of ramping up hospital care for Covid might threaten the CCP’s control of its people. Only a few weeks after restating its commitment to Zero Covid, the Chinese Communist Party made a remarkable U-turn in December – at pace, rather than with a carefully measured loosening of restrictions. Three elements may have shattered its determination to stick with Zero Covid: a realisation of the economic costs, the nationwide protests against lockdowns, and a tsunami of infections. The first two could have been dealt with by an orderly retreat. The last probably explains the sudden and unprepared abandonment of Zero Covid, which was so closely associated with Xi Jinping.
