Hello, I'm Rosak Hins.

Each week on the BBC World Service, I look at one of the biggest issues in the news.

This time, it's China's zero-COVID dilemma.

China's overall situation remains stable, and regional clusters of locally transmitted

cases can be effectively controlled within a short period of time.

This is herching qua from China's National Health Commission, and then this is what

effective control of COVID means in practice.

They discovered three asymptomatic cases, three, and that is led to a city of over one

million people being shut down.

Zero COVID means lockdowns.

It means testing on a huge scale.

It means extensive disinfecting of public transport ahead of the Spring Festival travel

season that's just started.

It also means quarantine camps for those suspected of having COVID.

It even means a hamster call in Hong Kong after cases were traced to a pet shop.

And in Beijing, residents are being discouraged from ordering items from overseas.

Officials say Omicron may have arrived in part via a parcel from Canada.

All of which means that while the virus was first identified in China, right now China

very much wants to keep it out.

And to do that, its fundamental strategy hasn't changed.

This is NPR's Beijing correspondent Emily Feng.

The only method they've tried and which has worked in the past is to lock down and contain

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