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China Briefing | China’s zero-Covid policy causes widespread hardships, as Shanghai’s lockdown shows. So why keep it?
- Some state media commentaries have portrayed the choice between zero-Covid and living with the virus as a struggle between two opposing systems of governance
- But that is wrong and dangerous. Shanghai’s lockdown woes show it’s high time China revived the wisdom of Deng Xiaoping and ‘seek truth from facts’
Reading Time:4 minutes
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“Seek truth from facts”. This succinct dictum crystallises a crucial part of Deng Xiaoping’s governing philosophy, which replaced Mao Zedong’s ideology-driven doctrine with pragmatism more than 40 years ago.
That change in mindset led China onto its path of reform and opening up, and towards its present-day status as one of the world’s largest economies.
But since coming to power in late 2012, and particularly in 2017 when he declared China had entered a new era under his leadership, President Xi Jinping has completely changed the way the country is governed.
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Part of that shift has included retiring much of Deng’s policies – such as the axiom of “keeping a low profile and biding your time”, which had successfully guided China’s foreign policy for decades.
But “seek truth from facts” still resonates and is very much relevant today, not only in regards to China’s zero-Covid policy, which is now the subject of international concern, but also to the country’s decision-making process.
02:02
Shanghai neighbours scream in unison to release lockdown stress
Shanghai neighbours scream in unison to release lockdown stress
Let’s consult the facts about the current situation first. China’s latest Omicron-fuelled outbreak has forced the authorities to lock down the entire city of Shanghai, the nation’s most important financial and manufacturing centre, for two weeks in a row.
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