Shanghai Aims to Reopen More Covid-Shut Businesses, Beijing Battles On

In the Changning district on Sunday, a woman began walking her dog before being told by a policeman to go home.

"The lockdown hasn't lifted!", the policeman shouted.

Outlier Approach

China's strict "dynamic zero" approach to COVID has put hundreds of millions of people in dozens of cities under curbs of varying degrees in an attempt to eliminate the spread of the disease.

The curbs are wreaking havoc on the world's second-largest economy and rattling global supply chains even as most countries try to return to normal life despite continued infections.

New bank lending hit the lowest in nearly four and half years in April as the pandemic jolted the economy and weakened credit demand, central bank data showed on Friday.

The Asian Football Confederation said on Saturday that China had pulled out of hosting the 2023 Asian Cup finals due to COVID, the latest in a wave of sporting event cancellations by China and prompting social media speculation that its zero-COVID policy could persist well into next year.

China managed to keep COVID at bay after it was discovered in Wuhan in late 2019, but has struggled to contain the highly infectious Omicron variant. The World Health Organization said last week China's approach was not "sustainable".

Still, China is widely expected to stick with its approach at least until the congress of the ruling Communist Party, which is historically in the autumn, where President Xi Jinping is poised to secure a precedent-breaking third leadership term.

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Despite the disruptions, no senior Chinese officials have spoken out publicly against a COVID-19 policy that Beijing defends as saving lives.

Case numbers in Shanghai continued to improve, with 1,369 daily symptomatic and asymptomatic infections reported, down from 1,681 a day earlier.

Importantly, the city reported no new cases outside of quarantined areas after finding one a day earlier. Consistently achieving zero cases outside quarantined areas is a key factor for officials determining when they can reopen the city.

Shanghai has achieved its zero-COVID target in more thinly populated suburban districts and started easing curbs there first, such as allowing shoppers to enter supermarkets, but it continued to tighten restrictions in many areas over the past two weeks, curtailing deliveries and putting up more fencing.

In Beijing, where restaurants have been shut for dining-in, several districts on Sunday extended work-from-home guidance and officials announced three more days of mass daily tests for most of the city's residents.

Beijing said it found 55 new cases in the 24 hours to 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Sunday, 10 of which were outside areas that are under quarantine. The city is scrambling to stamp out such community infections.