China promises change but sticks to severe ‘zero COVID’ plan

By JOE McDONALD
Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leaders are promising to improve quarantine and other anti-virus policies after public frustration boiled over into protests but said they will stick to a “zero COVID” strategy that has confined millions of people to their homes and disrupted the economy. President Xi Jinping’s government is enforcing  “zero COVID” while other countries ease travel and other curbs. The government has tried to dispel hopes for an easing of controls that shut down Shanghai and other major cities for weeks at a time to find and isolate every infected person. The ruling Communist Party says it will “unswervingly adhere” to “zero COVID” but promised to make it less disruptive.