Yeah, most people here don't know Chinese people who actually have to live through zero-Covid. From my experience, only retirees are actually supportive of the policies with everyone else at best tolerating it for the sake of the more vulnerable. Yes, living in a depraved society that's trying to pretend Covid isn't real is a dystopian nightmare, but the million dollar question is do Chinese people realize that zero-Covid is preferable to a society that has given up on Covid?

This is the classic tailist vs commandist problem that all orgs have to face. We all know the science about what society ought to do to combat Covid. But what happens when that society doesn't fully see the merit of zero-Covid? Like, do people here honestly believe zero-Covid would've been possible in any Western society that prioritizes personal freedom over collective health even if that society were socialist? Unless that society's socialist party just straight up enforces martial law and drops the hammer on protesters and people who break quarantines, no Western society, socialist or capitalist, has the popular mandate to enforce zero-Covid, certainly not a zero-Covid that's projected to last for years.

Fortunately, China is not of the West and various precautions like wearing surgical masks have long being normalized before Covid. But their patience isn't gonna last forever. Like, no present human society, not even China, is going to tolerate living under zero-Covid conditions for more than a decade.