“Is China closing its doors? Its leaders say no, but actions speak louder than words – and more clarity is needed” | Wang Xiangwei

Deng Xiaoping: “what’s happening to my Open Door Policy??”

The thing is this: China may keep itself in lockdown with endless testing and stay-at-home orders. But as soon as it opens the doors, even a crack, new cases will get through and Omicron will rage. The transmissibility of Omicron and armchair epidemiology suggest that's inevitable. 

Meantime China is indeed closed, less than a thousand per day let in, vs tens of millions pre Covid. 

China could close its borders and get by. It's done so in the past, like in the Ming Dynasty. It's big enough to survive.

Does this mean Hong Kong has to follow suit? We don't closely follow China's Zero Covid Policy. But neither are we as open as other countries, even in Asia: Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea. 

There's increasing pressure for us to align with the rest of the world. To show that there really are "Two Systems" as well as the "One Country".

Once again, the Post's Beijing rep Wang Xiangwei nails it…