The CCP screws up and releases COVID. They see how it’s spreading, and what it’s going, and know that as densely populated as their cities are, that it’s going to be BAD. Bad enough to tank their economy. So, they ship a bunch of people around to other countries to make sure that THEIR economies tank just as badly. “We’ll all be in this together” they say. It works.
NOW, the real estate bubble has popped in China, it’s 29% of their economy, and they realize it’s going to get BAD for them. They can’t be that economically weak when the rest of the world is strong. Something might happen, or the party might look weak, and “lose face”. This simply can’t be. So, they do this faux lockdown to stop exporting products. It’ll tank THEIR economy, but it’s already screwed, so they don’t care. They need to tank everyone else’s economies as well, so that once again “We’ll all in this together”.
Am I crazy?
We're both looking at the same factors, but my take is that Xi is fighting for survival.
I think it's likely Xi is imposing the lockdown to divert attention from/explain the ongoing economic downfall in China. In China the virus is described as a US creation and not a fault of Xi. So the lockdown is part of the effort to keep the Chinese people blaming outside forces for their suffering.
If the economic woes and the C virus were seen as mostly Xi's failing, that would mean he likely no longer has the "mandate from Heaven" which entitles him to rule.
Nice insightful post. Bravo.