Inside China’s Covid crisis

Coronavirus cases have been rising rapidly in China since its government ended its restrictive “zero-Covid” policy last month. Hospitals are expected to be inundated with newly-infected patients.Megan Gibson in London, Katie Stallard in Washington DC and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss why the country was so ill-prepared to lift its lockdowns and restrictions, where the responsibility lies, and the economic imperatives behind this decision, made in the depths of winter and before the Lunar New Year.Next they turn to a rare admission by Russia’s defence ministry on Monday (2 January) that 89 Russian soldiers were killed on New Year’s Day after Ukraine hit a “temporary deployment facility” with US-supplied Himars missiles. The team discuss the consequences of the attack, as well as Vladimir Putin’s and Volodymyr Zelenksy’s respective New Year speeches.Then in You Ask Us a listener asks for reading recommendations to better understand Ukrainian culture.If you have a question for You Ask Us, go to newstatesman.com/youaskusPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer: visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer to learn more Read more:Katie on what China's devastating Covid outbreak means for the rest of the worldThe Orphanage by Serhiy ZhadanIn Isolation by Stanislav AseyevDeath and the Penguin by Andrey KurkovThe Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii PlokhyRed Famine by Anne ApplebaumBloodlines by Timothy SnyderEast West Street by Philippe SandsA Loss. The story of a dead solider told by his sister by Olesya Khromeychuk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.