Please tell me you did not just travel to a tier-1 city like Beijing or Shanghai, and extrapolated what you saw in the CBD to all of China. There is a reason that they're still desperately clinging to zero-COVID policies when the rest of the world has moved on, against seemingly all common sense.

When did "saving millions of lives" by safeguarding public health become against common sense? Genuinely would like a direct answer to that question.

Was it 1991, when common sense was redefined as "whatever the global hegemon is doing"?

Was it 2017, when Washington decided China was their ultimate adversary and can do nothing right?

It became against common sense when Omicron became a thing, and if you understand what the average Chinese person has to go through now to visit relatives in a neighboring city, shop for groceries, or really just to go anywhere... I hope you get the idea. It relies on totalitarian levels of AI + big data surveillance, internal passports, lockdown measures, and completely untenable long term.

If I wasn't being clear, there are 2 major reasons why China refuses to open up: ineffective domestic vaccines and few hospital beds per capita. The CCP fears a total healthcare system collapse and subsequent discontent from its citizens.

The average Chinese citizen can move freely. Lockdowns are highly localized and temporary. Quarantine period was just cut nearly in half last week.

You should know these basic facts.