Xi Will Kill the Golden Goose

A reassertion of Maoist principles will stall China’s economy as much as COVID-19Commentary
Although China can look back on an economic miracle, its future seems highly encumbered.
Even with the best policies coming out of Beijing, aging demographics and the natural tendency for development to slow the pace of growth would have their effects, as would the legacy of past policy errors, such as residential overbuilding. Still, more problems will emerge from the zero-COVID lockdown policies. On a more fundamental basis, China’s economy will suffer from what looks like a reassertion of Maoist ideology.
The most immediate ill effects on the economy come from the anti-COVID regime. Whatever the public health necessities, the severe quarantines and lockdowns have achieved little beyond the much more economically friendly approaches used in the West.
COVID policy has also needlessly held back China’s economy by sowing fear among the Chinese public. Beijing has hidden the fact that the Omicron variant is milder and how Europe and America effectively cope with the virus …