Two views of the future of COVID zero — Editor’s note for Friday, November 4, 2022

Dear reader,

Today’s big news is that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in Beijing. He met Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 today. One thing they agreed on was opposing the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

COVID in China was in the news a lot this week: On Monday, we reported that workers were fleeing Apple’s biggest iPhone factory in China in fear of a lockdown. On Tuesday, Chinese financial markets surged on rumors that Beijing may end COVID zero.

Then on Thursday, China’s health chief reiterated support for the controversial pandemic policy, and I wrote an editor’s note predicting that COVID zero is here to stay for some time to come.

Our managing editor, Anthony Tao, read it “with interest”:

“I have colleagues in China who tell me that things are really going to loosen up soon,” Jeremy wrote. I am one of those colleagues. I’ve been in Beijing since the pandemic began, living under COVID zero, and have been keenly attuned to changes in the policy.

“Dynamic COVID zero,” as the Party defines it, may not necessarily go away, but it will look very different in the next four months. It already looks much different than four months ago.

Click through to see why Anthony thinks the policy is on the verge of some big changes.

The other big new stories we covered this week:

• Why were the bankers so bullish in Hong Kong?
• Putin calls Xi his friend, says ties have reached an unprecedented level of mutual trust
• China and Pakistan fast-track economic ties with more railways, ports, and yuan

Our phrase of the week is: Voting with their feet (用脚投票 yòng jiǎo tóupiào).