In a remarkable pivot from three years of policies designed to defeat the coronavirus, the Chinese government yesterday blazoned a broad rollback of those rules, an implicit concession after mass street demonstrations last month posed the most widespread challenge to the ruling Communist Party in decades.
The party appears to be attempting a tactical, face-saving retreat that would allow Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, to change tack without acknowledging that widespread opposition and economic pain had forced his hand. China’s state media depicted the move as a planned transition after Xi’s zero-tolerance approach secured a victory over a virus that had weakened.
The move, even as it may assuage protesters, will most likely result in a surge of infections as lockdowns lift, schools reopen and people try to resume normal life. The government must now place much greater urgency on vaccinations: Just two-thirds of people 80 and older are vaccinated, compared with 90 percent of the population overall.
The new rules limit the scope of lockdowns, scrap mandatory hospitalization and mass quarantines and order pharmacies not to control the sale of cold and flu medication — a policy used to prevent people from using over-the-counter drugs to reduce fevers and avoid detection.
