China has spent the last few years under some of the most rigid COVID restrictions in the

world, but in just a matter of weeks, pretty much all those restrictions have been lifted.

How dramatic of a pivot is this for China and its citizens?

It's incredibly dramatic.

Our colleague Brian Speagle reports from Beijing.

For hundreds of millions of people here at Safe to Say, there is a feeling of whiplash,

of everything that they've experienced.

The government was really holding fast to the zero COVID policy, trying to get cases

down to zero, or as close to zero as they possibly could.

Since then, they've completely changed course.

They relinquished almost all controls that had really guided this country for three

years during the pandemic.

They are free to move around, spend their money, travel, but at the same time, there is

a genuine public health crisis here.

Ever since China dropped its straight zero COVID policy this month, cases of COVID-19 have

been exploding.

The country is now buckling under a massive surge.

Experts fear more than a million people could die over the next few months as the virus

tears its way across the country.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Ryan Knutson.

It's Friday, January 20th.

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