Summary of the Essential Eight:

1. Reopening - The government will stop reporting asymptomatic cases but still report the meaningless official symptomatic case data, Covid czar Sun Chunlan inspected Beijing, the government announced a second booster for vulnerable groups, and while there are still no reports of significant numbers of deaths we are hearing more about medical staff getting sick and hospitals becoming strained. There is no turning back, and I am hearing the the quarantine policy for foreigners will officially shift to 0+3 in the second week of January.

2. “Victory will ultimately belong to the heroic Chinese people!” - Very long piece by "Ren Zhong Ping" aka People's Daily Important Commentary at the bottom 1/3 of page 1 of the Thursday People's Daily and most of page 2 that is a glowing review of the efforts, under the leadership of "People' Leader” Xi Jinping, in the fight against Covid over the last three years. There is one mention of "dynamic zero-Covid". And it is a remind…