What the great reopening means for China – and the world

Tourists and people of Miao ethnic group in traditional costumes attend a ceremony to celebrate the traditional Lusheng Festival at Dali village on Jan 3. (Image: Getty)

The Economist

Wed, 04 Jan 2023

When its borders open on Jan 8, China will have spent 1,016 days closed to the outside world. The country’s “zero-covid” policy has been a social and economic experiment without precedent: a vast public-health campaign that mostly kept the disease at bay; Xi Jinping’s pride and joy; and, by the end, a waking nightmare for many of China’s 1.4 billion people.Armies in white hazmat suits have been deployed to collect tens of billions of throat and nasal swabs. Millions were quarantined or hauled off to fever camps, of...

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