After rough 2022, can China still surpass the US?

Millions of Chinese are venturing back to their hometowns this week to usher in the Year of the Rabbit and celebrate long-delayed family reunions. 

But casting a pall over the festivities are ongoing concerns that gathering will bring a new wave of COVID-19 to rural areas with limited health care, as the epidemic has claimed some 60,000 lives since the country abruptly reopened last month, according to official data. “Tough challenges remain,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping said in a holiday video chat with medical workers Wednesday, “but the light of hope is right in front of us.”

China’s chaotic emergence from its “zero-COVID” regime is one of several measures that made 2022 one of the