What China’s zero-Covid drama foreshadows

After a rampant outbreak, the end of pandemic restrictions is in sight, but the public’s rejection of government rules raises the political stakes, writes Nancy Qian

A worker in protective overalls controls the line outside the fever clinic at a hospital in Beijing last  Saturday. Picture: Ng Han Guan/AP

China’s leaders always knew that they would have to abandon their zero-Covid policy eventually, and that the longer they waited, the more painful the transition would be.

Yet they seemed mired in the policy, unable to leave it behind and move on.