In China, the pandemic is over because President Xi Jinping says so.
That is the lesson to be learned from the radical about-face that Beijing made from one day to the next by abandoning its zero-Covid policy much too late.
To the very end, Xi, without regard to economic and social costs, against the advice of his experts to track every single Covid case, locked infected people and their contacts in camps and damaged the development of society and the economy with months of lockdowns in cities like Shanghai added.
The fact that dark clouds have now also gathered over the last remaining ray of hope, export, only gives an idea of the extent of the disaster.
Even worse for China than an impending recession is the realization that the leadership tailored solely to Xi is only able to make rational decisions under pressure from the streets.
By director's order, the most populous country on earth was forced to put on a gigantic spectacle for three years - for a single spectator.