China must “strive to achieve the maximum prevention and control at the least cost, and minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development,” President Xi Jinping said Thursday at a closed-door meeting of the politburo standing committee, China’s top decision-making body.
Xi’s statement may serve as a tacit acknowledgment of the impact of China’s zero-Covid strategy and its strict lockdowns on the world’s second largest economy.
China is facing its biggest Covid surge since the first major outbreak in Wuhan in early 2020, and its focus largely remains on containing a pandemic that other countries have decided to live with.
Authorities have imposed stringent measures to control the spread of the virus since cases surged across the country earlier this month. Tens of millions of people have been placed under various forms of lockdowns. Businesses were shuttered, and travel was restricted in several major industrial and technology hubs.
But those strict restrictions…
