The images circulating on China’s internet are reminiscent of the days after Russia invaded Ukraine. But the tens of thousands who are believed to be pulling suitcases on the expressways and lugging bags across fields in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou are not fleeing war. They are workers at Apple’s iPhone’s largest manufacturing facility, which produces mostly human drama following a Covid outbreak two weeks ago — and observers say could be a signal the global economy will remain below Beijing’s zero-Covid for many months, possibly years -Politics will suffer.
Henrik Ankenbrand
Economic correspondent for China based in Shanghai.
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When the Air Force Airbus with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) lands in Beijing on Friday morning, the 12 CEOs who are traveling with them, such as Oliver Blume (Volkswagen), Martin Brudermüller (BASF) and Roland Busch (Siemens), bring another hope with them: that their planned investments into the country may not be affected much longer by Beijing’s radical zero-Covid policy. In the current year, with repeated lockdowns of entire cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen, which often lasted weeks and sometimes even months, this has not helped the economy to pick up.