Matt Stoller, research director at the American Economic Liberties Project, discussed China’s COVID-19 lockdowns on Hill.TV’s “Rising” Tuesday, saying the country will eventually have to end its zero-COVID strategy.
“They’ll give up on it. I mean, omicron is omicron, right? You can’t stop it so they will give up on it. It’s just a question of politically how much effort they’re going to put into the bureaucracy they set up,” Stoller said.
China recently sent 51 million people into lockdown due to a rise in COVID-19 cases as the country aims to stomp all cases out of the country.
“The Chinese government feels, I think, that — they feel the restrictions they’ve put up to address COVID are actually helpful for other state purposes so they’re not super inclined to pull this stuff down,” Stoller said.
“There is a big bureaucratic investment in zero-COVID but, of course, you can’t stop COVID, so they will give it up, it’s just a question of how,” he added.
China has in recent weeks faced its highest reported case numbers since the outbreak in Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The country has spent the past two years implementing zero-tolerance policies such as widespread testing and intensive lockdowns to keep case rates low.
Meanwhile, other countries have begun transitioning out of restrictions such as mask mandates.
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