China's big problem isn’t Ukraine — it’s COVID

China's Unanticipated COVID Problem | GZERO World

Everyone's talking a lot about China these days, mostly related to China's problematic position on Russia's war in Ukraine.

But China's big problem is at home with COVID, according to Melinda Liu, Beijing bureau chief for Newsweek.

The country which once boasted about beating the West on the pandemic is seeing its worst infection numbers in over two years. The streets of its largest city are empty, Liu told Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.

Liu says that Shanghai's lockdown is symbolic because its people always saw themselves as "the best managed, the most advanced, the most sophisticated." But now they're facing a challenge they never saw coming — and that "hits right to the soul."

Watch the GZERO World episode: China’s discontent & the Russia distraction

More from GZERO Media

- YouTube

As Russia’s invasion rages on with no end in sight, Ukraine’s future hangs in the balance. Continued US support is far from guaranteed, and future policy toward Ukraine won't be clear until after the dust settles from the US election. On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer sat down with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, one of Ukraine’s staunchest defenders, to ask about its path to EU membership and the future of Europe’s strategic autonomy.

Signage for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG) 2024 Annual Meetings is seen at the IMF secondary headquarters, in Washington, D.C., on Monday, October 21, 2024.
(Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA)

The last time the World Bank and International Monetary Fund held their landmark conference in April, speakers placed great emphasis on each institution’s role in helping the world’s poorest people get a leg up.

Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen is pictured at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania in this December 28, 2004 file photo.
REUTERS/Selahattin Sevi/Zaman Daily via Cihan News Agency

An exiled Turkish cleric who founded a global Islamic movement and was an adversary rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan died Sunday in the United States.

A woman and three children flee their home from gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti October 20, 2024.
REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol

Residents in Port-au-Prince’s government-controlled neighborhood of Solino have been sheltering from gang assaults that began late Thursday and intensified over the weekend.

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk speaks as Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump looks on during a rally at the site of the July assassination attempt against Trump, in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria

It's two weeks until Election Day, and both candidates are scrambling to pull ahead in the seven swing states that could decide the election.

Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris reacts as she speaks during a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., October 19, 2024.
REUTERS/Dustin Chambers

Since leaping onto the main stage in late July, Harris has been dogged by questions about her foreign policy experience and potential priorities.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards a plane, en route to the Middle East, as he departs Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., October 21, 2024.
REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is en route to Israel, where he is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday as part of a renewed push for a Gaza cease-fire.