Of the 25 to 26 million people in Shanghai, several million are running extremely low on food and necessities at this time. Many are surviving on one meal a day only, let alone getting a balanced diet. Urgent action to restore delivery operations is needed. The degree of desperation is epitomized by this clip from a few days ago. This young man called the police saying that his family had run out of food for four day. He wanted to go to the police headquarters and be apprehended so that he would be fed.

The surrender of Hong Kong and struggles by Shanghai, Jilin and other areas in China to achieve zero-covid make it evident to many Chinese the costs of pursuing the zero-covid strategy. These costs can be counted in lost businesses as well as in lives lost to the strict policies. Most importantly, they show that the dynamic zero-covid strategy may have met its match in Omicron Ba.2. It's time China deployed a vaccine that can help reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

China's Illiberal Regulatory State and the China Model: Why is Chinese regulation prone to cycles of boom and bust, with episodes of dramatic crisis followed by efforts to crack down and correct? How does this Chinese experience compare with the regulatory state found in the West , esp. the U.S.? Those who are interested in such questions may be interested in my "China’s Illiberal Regulatory State in Comparative Perspective." It notes that, generally speaking, the regulatory state in a liberal democratic setting has become accepted as enabling liberal

The costs of stability at all costs: On January 1, well before the Wuhan #coronaravirus spread en masse and more than a week before the virus was identified, the Wuhan police announced that it had dealt with eight people for spreading untruthful information about "Wuhan viral pneumonia" in accordance with law. Official news reports of the time say that the Wuhan police wanted to remind people it would be unrelenting in dealing with those who concoct and spread rumors (xinhuanet.com/2020-01/01/c_1…). This news item was prominently carried on