Dr. Nick Coatsworth: I think the point is if you are going to adopt such a stringent strategy of Covid-zero for so long and the most authoritarian government in the world will eventually find that their population rebels against it.

Technically, Dan Andrews' ALP is the most authoritarian govt in the world - still holds the record for longest lockdown. Plus, as bad as the reports are of CCP crackdown on protestors, it's not at the level of police brutality as we saw in Victoria.

Coatsworth: If you are going to adopt that (Zero-Covid) policy, you better make sure that you’re convincing your population to get vaccinated. Only 40 per cent of over 80s have received a third dose of Covid-19 vaccine

That's curious. Andrews had no trouble - he simply banned people from society if they didn't get vaxxed - made them unemployable. So are we meant to believe that the Chinese govt baulked at adopting such draconian measures? I don't think so. China could vaccinate whoever they want before lunchtime tomorrow if that was their desire. The fact that they haven't suggests either they recognize the vaccines don't work, or, worse, consider them harmful.

Or, there's a whole new virus coming our way & the Chinese are getting a jump on it ...

Or, the invasion of Taiwan is imminent ...

Interestingly, reading the article, the good doctor & the journalist seem more worried about the dissent than do about any health effects from Covid saying the unfolding catastrophe would undoubtedly influence the geopolitical landscape.

This might be the most significant impact we have seen in the pandemic where you have protests across multiple Chinese cities against someone, a world leader, who has held absolute authority up until the past week or so.

This they seem to think is a bad thing, as it will disrupt the wonderful world order we have now - wherein the rich are getting dramatically richer - due to Covid. Imagine the damage it would do to profits if there were continuing protests in China ... Anyway, i wouldn't worry too much if i was them. They make it sound like Xi lost his absolute control of China in the past week or so - no-one would be happier than me if that was true - but i'm sure it's not.