New Politburo Standing Committee member Li Qiang meets the media following the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Oct 23, 2022.HONG KONG/BEIJING/SHANGHAI - As unprecedented protests against China's zero-Covid policies escalated in November, Li Qiang, the man recently elevated to No 2 on the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, seized the moment.
The protests in November marked a turning point in Xi's handling of COVID management as he started to take a less hands-on approach and allowed Li, his long-time ally, to take charge, two of the people said. Officials from the National Health Commission proposed benchmarks for full reopening, the key being improving the elderly vaccination rate, said two of the sources.
Beijing's local government, which did not respond to a request for comment, spent nearly 30 billion yuan on Covid prevention and controls last year, official data show. The CDC did not respond to a request for comment about China's case data and its involvement in reopening talks. Xi's vacillating led to renewed debate on Covid policy among top leaders during mid to late November, one of these people and another person said. By then, there were enough indications to suggest that economic growth was set to slump to one of its worst levels in nearly half a century.