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Speaker 1: Let's get to our guest, Inner Tanga and the senior

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Speaker 1: fellow Taiha Institute and Chairman of Asian Narratives with us

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Speaker 1: to discuss what we're seeing happening before our very eyes

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Speaker 1: in China. The COVID updates, the change in policy, the

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Speaker 1: end of isolation, opening up to the outside world. It's

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Speaker 1: all very exciting, but it carries both benefits and perhaps

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Speaker 1: a few things to be concerned about. Einer, thanks very

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Speaker 1: much for being with us. I suppose let's start with

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Speaker 1: with some of the the issues here, because you already

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Speaker 1: see flights really packed because the airlines haven't put on

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Speaker 1: enough capacity to really handle it. And now you're going

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Speaker 1: to have Chinese uh citizens traveling all around the world.

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Speaker 1: That's just one example, but there must be many like that.

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Speaker 1: How even is this going to be as we move forward, Well,

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Speaker 1: it's gonna probably be pretty explosive the Chinese here, economists

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Speaker 1: coming out of Beijing Shanghai are predicting a very sharp

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Speaker 1: v recovery, and that's going to be very good for

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Speaker 1: the rest of the world. I mean, Chinese tourists are

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Speaker 1: the number one source of tourism in the world prior

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Speaker 1: to and it looks like they're going to be back

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Speaker 1: with vengeance. Question is how long will it last? The

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Speaker 1: question is also what prompted this sudden shift, the swift movement,

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Speaker 1: the sudden revossal in zero COVID policy. What's your understanding,

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Speaker 1: what's your own reading? Well, I live here in Beijing,

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Speaker 1: and I saw the protest, but you have to remember

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Speaker 1: we're talking about a few thousand people spread out over

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Speaker 1: to twenty cities, mostly in colleges where there's a tremendous

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Speaker 1: amount of frustration going on. But that really wasn't the

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Speaker 1: seminal event. I think what really pushed things along was

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Speaker 1: so many people in China looking at the World Cup,

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Speaker 1: you know, seeing stadiums just completely packed, seeing people on

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Speaker 1: the field just quote living a normal life, and so

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Speaker 1: there is a sense that, Okay, maybe this is the

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Speaker 1: time to open up. I don't know if they were

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Speaker 1: as prepared as they could be, but remember, prior to

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Speaker 1: all of this concern about opening up, everyone was concerned

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Speaker 1: about China not opening up, and they said, oh, you know,

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Speaker 1: why why are you doing this? This is regressive and

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Speaker 1: repressive and all these things, and China was getting a

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Speaker 1: very bad wrap as soon as it opened up. It

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Speaker 1: seems that China is terrible because it's opened up. Well, well,

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Speaker 1: I think that a lot of people will look at

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Speaker 1: this as a net positive. I mean, there are are issues,

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Speaker 1: you know, that are attached to almost anything that you

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Speaker 1: do with public policy. But if this is a a

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Speaker 1: positive going forward, who benefits the most? Is it the

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Speaker 1: Chinese people themselves? I mean, are they ready for it?

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Speaker 1: Are they uh, you know, are they ready to consume? Oh? Boy?

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Speaker 1: Are they ready to consume? Right now? They're going through

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Speaker 1: this period where they're adjusting. I mean, when the government

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Speaker 1: said okay, now you're you're pretty much free to go around.

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Speaker 1: There's no testing. Um, you know, when I get into

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Speaker 1: the equivalent of a d D which you called a

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Speaker 1: a hired car, no longer am I required to register anything,

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Speaker 1: even going into buildings. Um. There's only a few areas,

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Speaker 1: like hospitals where they want you to have a pretest

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Speaker 1: so that you're not actively spreading around since of course

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Speaker 1: that's where sick people are and people who are um,

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Speaker 1: you know, have comorbidities and would be likely to suffer

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Speaker 1: because of this. But other than that, things are pretty

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Speaker 1: much open. But people are responding by being very cautious Um,

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Speaker 1: right now, we're back to traffic jams in in Beijing.

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Speaker 1: The subways are loaded. Uh, people are just going back

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Speaker 1: to work. But in the evenings you don't see the

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Speaker 1: large numbers of people out there at the clubs. There

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Speaker 1: are clubs very near my house, so I can see

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Speaker 1: their activity from my window. Uh, they are back in

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Speaker 1: full force. Um. But other places, Um, you know, if

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Speaker 1: you go out to the restaurants, as I said, it's

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Speaker 1: about half full. Fact that's changed dramatically though, in about

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Speaker 1: a week. In Chinese tech, real estate, gaming that's all

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Speaker 1: been targeted by the government. Is the CLEMP down in

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Speaker 1: all its forms over. I mean, what might be the

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Speaker 1: thinking be now as the government focuses on growth. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean people kind of get mixed messages from the

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Speaker 1: Chinese government, and they really shouldn't. This is a socialist government.

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Speaker 1: What they do is they measure things in terms of

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Speaker 1: the society. So they will continue to keep a very

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Speaker 1: very close eye on any kind of monopolies. They did

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Speaker 1: not like game the video gaming industry because it was

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Speaker 1: literally you know, sucking up a lot of time of

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Speaker 1: young people. Um. They would just go from studying too

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Speaker 1: much to using video games as a distraction, and it

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Speaker 1: wasn't really a very balanced life. So there's an example

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Speaker 1: where from the government's point of view, it was necessary

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Speaker 1: to intercede. And and that's what it is. It's not

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Speaker 1: about trying to depress the profits of Ali Baba. It's

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Speaker 1: really about helping the people. Einer, thanks very much for

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Speaker 1: being with us. We really appreciated. Einer Tongan, Senior Fellow

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Speaker 1: Taiha Institute and Chairman of Asia Narratives