There's been a flurry of news articles, one after the other, about China suddenly abandoning the zero covid policy.  Experience here on the ground confirms it.  There are no longer covid tests required to get onto public transit, and more and more venues are not asking to scan the QR location tracking codes anymore.  Some cities have gotten rid of street testing booths altogether.  Moreover the domestic news articles are quoting from health experts in Guangzhou who are saying publicly what we've known to be true all along since November of 2021:  covid is no more pathogenic than a seasonal cold or flu.

Leading virologist Zhang Wenhong himself even said "It is crucial to build immunity among vulnerable groups and the future work is not focused on competely clearing the virus through nucleic acid testing but should focus on keeping the virulence at a very low level."

It wasn't that long ago when his voice was heavily censored from the mainstream news along with others such as Zhong Nanshan saying the exact same things.  These voices were drowned out with the top leaders in power saying essentially "We must hold unswervingly to the zero covid policy and not lie flat".  This term 'lying flat' is a euphemism for coexisting with the virus and giving up the hard work of the zero policy.

All of a sudden the top leaders had gone completely silent on zero covid and have made what was essentially a tactical withdrawl from it.  Is this cause for jubilation or more anger?  We just witnessed a textbook example of Chinese face.  These leaders are so proud they think they are infallible and can never admit they are wrong.  When they are clearly proven wrong, they won't admit it or apologize.  Like true cowards, they say absolutely nothing and pretend nothing ever happened while they continue to hold onto their positions of power.

One thing is good from this, it is safe to safe there won't be any more lockdowns in the forseeable future.  What happened in April and May was criminal to say the least, but we'll deal with the aftermath of that for years to come.  It will take patience and time to work through all of it.  Even so, the latest developments signal an exit from the pandemic.

Plans are in the works for an inaugral post-covid international trip that will go in this compound journal and then I'll finish it off.  Before that, there are several more bike trips in Shanghai and out of province trips that will lead up to the big one.  Now we don't have to worry about lockdowns returning anymore, this journal can finally proceed as it was intended to.

The suddenness of this shift has surprised a lot of us.  Now there certainly exist those exhibiting 'Stockholm syndrome', that is people who got used to all the lockdowns, daily covid tests, threats of lockdowns, bars shutting down all the time, along with other myriad of restrictions.   These people, dare I say it, actually thought there some positives about this lifestyle and adapted.  After all it went on for almost 3 years.  They enjoyed the routine I suppose of getting tested every couple days and the euphoria of being allowed into a building with a negative covid test.

All this being said, it's still not over yet.  We still can't travel to other provinces.  If we do, our health code is marked with red letters on return for 5 days which bans us entry to bars, clubs, markets, shopping malls, and basically anywhere useful.  International trips are still a no-go, it means a quarantine on arrival.

Very likely these restrictions will ease in the not-so-far future.  But you don't just flip a switch and move on. One thing for sure, whatever the outcome is next, there is no going back to zero covid.