The growing rivalry is exemplified by developments ranging from the trade war before the COVID-19 pandemic to the narrative battles and vaccine race during it [83,84,85, 68]. After this first wave, China’s pandemic response was further articulated as the ‘dynamic zero-COVID’ (dongtai qingling动态清零) policy and became routinized country-wide. While the rest of world was struggling with the multiple waves of the pandemic, China quickly returned to normal economic activities. argue that the ‘Xi factor’ was not solely responsible, and multiple systemic constraints together obstructed the country’s decision-makers in adjusting the zero-COVID policy [93]. A direct consequence of the U-turn in China’s pandemic response was widespread infection.

Source: Washington Post January 02, 2024 09:37 UTC