Five years

Though perhaps not out of the woods just yet, my Omicron encounter has so far been exceptionally mild. While I recognize that this is not a regular cold and that people are still dying from Covid, my own experience as a triple vaxxed healthy adult is still not that unusual with many cases being completely asymptomatic. As such, it is not surprising that domestic resentment with China’s zero-covid policy is growing. A recent declaration from Beijing to “unremittingly grasp the normalisation of epidemic prevention and control in the next five years”, has clearly not gone down well with its lockdown-tired urban population, many of whom are now looking for a way out, with internet posts on “run xue” or “run philosophy” becoming increasingly popular. Considering the global spread of Covid, including among animals (!), zero-covid is obviously not going to work but for different reasons, not the least its fondness for social control, the Chinese communist party does not appear ready to admit defeat just yet.