WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the United States had a stake in China’s response to Covid as Beijing eases stringent restrictions following protests.
“We want China to get Covid right. It’s profoundly in our interest that that happen,” Blinken told an event organized by The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s in the interests of the Chinese people first and foremost, but it’s also in the interest of people around the world, so we want them to succeed,” he said.
He pointed to the “dramatic impact” to the world of slowdowns in China’s economy, the world’s largest after the United States, triggered by its earlier policy of imposing sweeping lockdowns in response to Covid outbreaks.
China late last month faced its most widespread street demonstrations since 1989 triggered by anger over lockdowns, with demands quickly including calls for greater political reforms.
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China’s leadership moved quickly to disperse demonstrations but also loosened the zero-Covid policies that it had been championing.
Some experts caution of risks with the opening due to gaps in vaccination in China as authorities instead focused on isolating all cases.
Covid, which has killed more than six million people worldwide directly, was first detected in China in late 2019.
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