As China’s Covid-19 lockdowns snarl supply chains and spark protests from foreign firms, will zero tolerance pass the test?

Anxiety was getting the better of Xiao Ke. The trading company owner from Hangzhou was supposed to have delivered a Greece-bound cosmetics shipment to Shanghai earlier this month for customs clearance. But there had been no truck services available for weeks.

That is because Shanghai has been under near total lockdown since last month, as authorities stick with a “dynamic zero” Covid-19 strategy to contain the country’s worst wave since the pandemic hit in early 2020, and provinces next to the eastern logistics hub scramble to block transport links to cut off virus transmission chains.