Since China dropped its strict “zero Covid” policy, a joke has been making the rounds on social media about the sudden shift.Three men who don’t know each other sit in a prison cell. Each explains why he was arrested:“I opposed Covid testing.”“I supported Covid testing.”“I conducted Covid testing.”The joke has yet to be broadly censored. It is a sign of just how much the Chinese Communist Party, usually a master of messaging, is struggling to come up with a coherent explanation for the policy shift and a clear directive for what to do with an explosion of cases now threatening the country’s medical resources.So dizzying was the switch that even two weeks later, the state’s powerful propaganda and censorship system has yet to catch up to the flood of confusion and criticism seeping through the country’s typically tight internet controls.Apart from laying out the new Covid rules, Chinese offi …
