"As we know, because we’ve gone through it several times, the problem comes a month or two later. There will be a massive wave of covid infections, and this means that there’s going to be a lot of people with heavy symptoms, and, inevitably, there will be some deaths—a lot more covid-related deaths than what China is used to. Does Xi then reinstate a very draconian lockdown? Does he go to some partial level of lockdown, but push through with it? It’s unclear at this point. Right now, the optics are good. There’s an opening. People are a little bit more satisfied, a little bit less frustrated. For the next month or so, it’s going to be good. But when China does get this massive wave of infection and hospitalization, what is Xi going to do?"

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-xi-jinping-changed-his-mind-on-zero-covid