Over the past two years China has had a lower mortality rate from the virus and stronger economic growth than any other big country. It’s “zero Covid” policy has been hailed repeatedly by the official Chinese media as proof of the superiority of the Beijing model of governance. Grandpa Xi’s mantra has been that the east is rising and the west is in decline.
But as the West is opening up, China is locking down hard, very hard.
A report by Gavekal Dragonomics, a research firm, said that all but 13 of China’s top 100 cities (by GDP) were implementing covid restrictions (see chart). Ten cities are in “severe lockdown”, meaning more than half of residents are confined to their homes. Changchun, Xuzhou and Shanghai were recently in full lockdown. But from the Shanghai chart (above) and the next two charts below, the Covid cases are “peanuts”.
Grandpa Xi’s “zero Covid” policy — hailed repeatedly by the official Chinese media as proof of the superiority of the Beijing model of governance — is now in serious trouble.
Shanghai is in a prolonged and increasingly unsustainable lockdown. Residents are getting upset and KPKBing publicly, some even rioting.
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 
china has a centralized bureaucratic system: the top leaders all start at town council level & work their way up over 15-20 years; princelings like xi enter with advantage & keep rising as long as they make no serious mistakes; others need to show some superior abilities, but by the time they reach the top echelon, they are all very skilled at being bureaucrats; u can say this is good or bad, it is simply very different from the American system, where local, state, central govts have separate elections, & someone who knows nothing about governing can still become president
As indicated by many cheenas in wechat & weibo, they can tolerate many things (even seeing their elderly parents die for lack of medical access in lockdowns), but the one thing they cannot tolerate is lack of food & going hungry. 6,000 years of China history of famines burned into their DNA. Any wonder why even chinese Sinkies greet their elders by asking “Have you eaten?”
The problem with china cheenas is their penchant for fresh foods be it meat, veg or fruits. They don’t go for canned or frozen or packaged foods, which their supermarkets don’t stock enough anyway for a mass lockdown scenario. Stuff like instant noodles are more of snacks, not meal replacements.
Hence most cheenas stocked up mainly on fresh foods, which is limited by both the size of their home refrigerators as well as availability as millions swarmed markets to grab beforehand. Most of such fresh ingredients will be used up or spoiling after 5 days.
For severe or total lockdowns, they can’t even leave their apartments to buy food or go see doctor, not even for blood dialysis for kidney failure people. Anyway, shops, supermarkets or wet markets are all not open in a severe/total lockdown situation.