Turn of the tide in China: "Zero Covid" leads to a relapse into self-imposed isolation and intensifies geopolitical tensions. The Chinese leadership soon considers itself the victor in the fight against the pandemic and the Western social system. Possibly prematurely, because at the same time it is risking its business model, which has been successful since Deng Xiaoping. Between facts and propaganda, the foreigners who remain in China experience how people settle into a country of contradictions. They observe how the country continues to progress in many respects, while repression and nationalism hark back to the days of Mao. At the same time, China mercilessly reminds the West of its own gaps between aspiration and reality. A snapshot with an open-ended outcome.