By the Jamestown Foundation In December of last year, China’s central government lifted its stringent “zero-COVID” restrictions, signaling to the public it shifted its principal policy objective from pandemic prevention measures to jump-starting China’s flagging economy (Japan Times, April 16). In the first quarter of 2023, the country seemed to be recovering as growth accelerated to 4.5 percent—compared to only 2.9 percent in the final quarter of last year (Xinhua, April 13). Looking beyond GDP growth figures, however,…
