Inside China's "zero COVID" fortress, Xi admits no doubts

But extended economic damage and social tensions from long shutdowns could soften Mr. Xi’s power to corral elite support behind his picks for the next leadership lineup, said Minxin Pei, a professor at Claremont McKenna College in California who studies Chinese politics. Mr. Xi is likely to stay dominant no matter what, but dominance can rise or fall by increments, and the officials around him matter.

“The difference right now with respect to the zero-Covid approach is that the costs are now visible,” Professor Pei said. “You cannot gloss over them.”

Even before the Shanghai crisis, Mr. Xi sounded embattled. Officials have lately suggested that criticizing the Covid policy amounts to disloyalty to Mr. Xi, or called stamping out cases “a political duty that takes precedence over everything.”…

But an increasingly vocal group of Chinese economists and business leaders argue that damage from shutdowns will be harder to cure. The chronic uncertainty over when it is possible to travel, spend, buy property or invest in business has damaged consumer and company confidence.