We’ve covered this story of the brutal and inhumane lockdowns of tens of millions of Chinese citizens in major cities in China from the start. This Maoist policy has been going on for three years as Beijing communists rule with an iron fist with no regard whatsoever for basic liberties and human rights and with few provable public health benefits. (Yes, we know that could be said of many Democratic governors here in the United States.)

Only time will tell if this leak – that zero COVID policy is ending – is accurate. If true, this is a major stroke for human rights, as the last major nation throws in the towel on shutdowns and militant stay-at-home orders. It also has major policy implications for the global economy as it will help ease supply chain shortages. We suspect that China only stuck with the lockdowns as long as they did because Xi refused to admit error before the Chinese Communist Party Congress confirmed his power.

If there is anything positive that has come from these dictatorial controls exercised by the tyrants in charge in Beijing, it is that the U.S. and the rest of the industrialized world now see that China can no longer be counted on as a reliable participant in the global supply chain – and it’s time to create degrees of separation.