US expert: Three years' fight paves way for reopening

China discontinuing its strict dynamic zero-COVID policy to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus was a smart decision to wait until now, as the mission of the Communist Party of China is to serve the people, said Harvey Dzodin, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization.

Dzodin said that for almost three years China's strict pandemic prevention and control model "worked remarkably well."

He mentioned unlike China, many other governments were worried more about their economy than about the people.

"They prematurely succumbed to their populations' pandemic fatigue, thereby throwing caution and sound medical practices to the wind, needlessly losing precious lives," said Dzodin.

"Instead of fighting needless zero-sum international relations battles, it's imperative that global attention and energy be laser-focused now on learning from the past three years' experience and preventing future pandemics," said Dzodin.