China’s Covid ‘Exit Wave’: (2) Is It Over?

• “China’s top leaders said Thursday that the country has achieved “decisive victory” over Covid as its death toll drops sharply. The Politburo Standing Committee said the Communist Party’s judgment, policies and adjustment of Covid controls since November have been “totally right,” according to China’s state television.” – Bloomberg News

A Miracle?

China’s “flash exit from zero-Covid” in December 2022 produced a predictable surge in infection and mortality rates, which in the short term compounded the disruption of the Chinese economy created by the zero-Covid program over the prior two years. But following that “exit wave,” the Chinese government has promoted the narrative that the worst is over. In January, just weeks after lifting the lockdowns, Vice-Premier Liu He proclaimed (at the Davos conclave in Switzerland) that the pandemic had “peaked” and China was “back to normal” or nearly so.