Besides that China did react correctly. They changed in my eyes for three reasons:
the West did not go Zero-Covid, this means that any quarantine in your country due to global exchange of people and goods will still have new variants getting inside your country as soon as you end it
the variants that existed (see point 1) did become infectious faster, which means that more people without symptoms and with negative tests would be infectious, this means that the medical helpers as well as those doing infrastructure and logistical work would spread stuff. So in addition to the environment (see 1) the interactions within the system changed.
in addition - especially in direct contrast between the West and Chinese actions - a small minority of Chinese people did start to protest more / tell people more they want a different approach.
This means that there were good reasons for a change and the CPC did gradually change the rules. This was good policy.
Besides that China did react correctly. They changed in my eyes for three reasons:
the West did not go Zero-Covid, this means that any quarantine in your country due to global exchange of people and goods will still have new variants getting inside your country as soon as you end it
the variants that existed (see point 1) did become infectious faster, which means that more people without symptoms and with negative tests would be infectious, this means that the medical helpers as well as those doing infrastructure and logistical work would spread stuff. So in addition to the environment (see 1) the interactions within the system changed.
in addition - especially in direct contrast between the West and Chinese actions - a small minority of Chinese people did start to protest more / tell people more they want a different approach.
This means that there were good reasons for a change and the CPC did gradually change the rules. This was good policy.