[jyl]

The “hopeful” theory is that Xi needed to keep Covid suppressed until he sealed his takeover of the government, and now he will walk back the zero-Covid policy, while suppressing reporting of the resultant Covid epidemic and aggressively vaccinating/boosting the population with the most effective vaccines, and by doing so restore the economy to growth. That would be the logical thing to do, from a Western POV, and Western investors are desperate to believe it.

There are other theories.

Certainly Covid restrictions are an effective way to extend China’s police state and control the population, but the economic cost is very high.