The strict COVID management policy initiated by Xi Jinping in 2020 has become one of the world’s most impressive success stories: Not only has China successfully contained the outbreak in Wuhan, it has also managed to achieve positive annual economic growth. In the face of global chaos, Beijing has effectively exploited all of this success for propaganda purposes, shaping the positive attitude of domestic and foreign audiences towards China’s containment strategy. However, the spread of a highly contagious but less dangerous strain this year poses a serious challenge to Beijing’s efforts to maintain the strict COVID policy unchanged since 2020. The coronavirus outbreak in China, with Shanghai as its epicentre, is a very serious test for Beijing, with economic, social, and political consequences.
GSSC Associate Expert and Chief Policy Analyst at the Government Strategic Analysis Center (STRATA). Since 2021, he has been a PhD candidate at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University. In 2023, Boruta was a visiting fellow at National Chengchi University in Taiwan under the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Taiwan Fellowship programme. He holds an MA in International Relations from Sichuan University, China, and a BA in East Asian Studies with a focus on China from the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom. His research focuses on the foreign and domestic policies of China and Taiwan, as well as cross-Strait relations, with particular attention to the dynamics of China–ASEAN relations and the strategic competition between Beijing and Taipei in Central and Eastern Europe.
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