China’s Economic Activity Falls Sharply As Zero-COVID Hits Growth

Workers in protective suits move equipment for a makeshift nucleic acid testing site to the next residential area after wrapping up the screening at a compound in Shanghai on May 14, 2022. cnsphoto via Reuters

China’s economy is paying the price of the communist regime’s “zero-COVID” policy that has placed tens of millions of people across the country under lockdown, with retail sales and factory production sliding to their worst level since the onset of the pandemic.

The National Bureau of Statistics on May 16 released April’s economic data, which showed declines even steeper than economists had expected.