Is the CCP’s desperation behind China’s abrupt reopening?

China usually shuts down for the Lunar New Year, but Communist party leaders have marked the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit with a burst of activity worthy of that skittish animal. They have followed their colossal U-turn on zero-Covid with a charm offensive to convince the outside world that China is open for business. In many ways it is as abrupt an about-turn as scrapping Covid controls in the first place.

Xi Jinping despatched his trusted vice-premier and economic tsar Liu He to Davos to schmooze with western business leaders. In his speech to the World Economic Forum two weeks ago, he mentioned ‘strengthening international cooperation’ no less than 11 times. He said that the door for foreign investors would ‘open up further’.

At home, a heavy-handed crackdown on tech companies appears to be easing. The message is that ‘rectification’ is over and soothing words have abruptly replacing threats.