Zero Covid is an overly cautious approach, I admit, however, the people themselves supported it, given the very scary attack of a bioweapon (And I believe Clandestine's hypothesis that Wuhan was attacked by something that was imported from the biolabs in the Ukraine). Realize that China did not adopt the mRNA vax (good on them). They were attempting to develop their own, traditional, vax, and running tests, as they should. Whatever one believes about vaxes, (I think they are ALL shit), the people believed that they should wait. And yes, this was democratically determined. The Chinese have a very complex and comprehensive voting system. I am pretty sure a lot of the early VERY SCARY videos we were shown of welding shut doors, etc. were a complete setup. Just as we believed the whole thing was a hoax.

But then, they opened China up earlier this year. It was explained that the disease had mutated to a milder form (and there were some loud demonstrations - note that these were NOT brutally suppressed). Yes, they immediately had a wave of Omicron, but at this point, that's basically a cold. One can say that everyone's immune systems had to 'catch up', but I digress.

Whether the lockdowns were designed to break down exports to the USA is also another conversation.

Re: the persecution of religions, show me some evidence that these stories are not just Western talking points. I am not saying the Chinese are perfect, plenty of troubling things going on, including factions infighting, but then for a bit of waddaboutism - look at the EU - president not elected by the people; or the USA - rigged elections; or the mysterious sanctioning of countries that have kicked out the Rothschilds. We are all in the same boat, actually.