US manufacturers with ties to China applaud easing of Covid-19 restrictions

But analysts warn that Beijing’s policy change in wake of rare street protests doesn’t necessarily signal stability or a return to the pre-pandemic status quo

‘We sense that a crucial corner has been turned on the road to economic recovery,’ says a business group whose members include Apple, Nike and Caterpillar

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Beijing’s easing of strict “zero-Covid” policies is widely considered good for overall US-China relations. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 7:24am, 8 Dec 2022Updated: 8:09am, 8 Dec 2022

China’s sudden shift away from its strict Covid-19 containment measures took many US analysts by surprise, sparking expectations that Beijing’s apparent policy response to popular unrest would allow for a return to pre-pandemic normalcy and possibly warmer Sino-US ties.

However, most are bracing for a wave of infections in China that will prevent an immediate shift back to the status quo, and some question the extent to which business-as-usual will lead to a broader improvement in bilateral relations.

Many analysts expected “scenarios where China’s just never going to reopen in a manner or in a way that will look like the China of the past, and so [the public health policy change] is huge”, said Benjamin Shobert, senior associate for international health at the Washington-based National Bureau of Asian Research.

Earlier predictions about indefinite Covid restrictions reflected “really deep concern with [China’s] leadership, about the country’s political stability and also about the economic realities that they’d be navigating if they had stayed on the path that they were on”, he said.