“My guess is China can at the earliest open up late 2023. [Officials] are in a deep hole and they keep digging,” the president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China was quoted as saying in July in a Bloomberg article titled “China’s COVID zero could last for years because it works for Xi”.

The Economist claimed on Dec. 1 that Xi had turned “the zero-COVID policy into a test of loyalty”, while The Atlantic opined on Nov. 28 that Beijing had touted the policy as “a mark of the superiority of China’s authoritarian system”.

Yet Beijing significantly relaxed its restrictive policy not long after widespread protests erupted against the strict COVID stance in several cities. Of all countries, China seemed to have accommodated its people’s calls for change.

Anyone looking at China without prejudice, whether ideological or political, would not have been overly surprised, because the country had proven to be more responsive to public discontent over vaccines than many Western nations: “After backlash, Beijing drops COVID vaccination mandate for crowded venues”, ran a Reuters headline in July.

As government officials, business executives and industry analysts told The Jakarta Post on Monday, the loosening of COVID curbs in China, Indonesia’s biggest trade partner, could spell a boon for Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

China is also a crucial source of foreign direct investment flows, second only to Singapore according to official data.

At a time when Jakarta is scrambling for funds to build a new capital city in Kalimantan, it is sure to welcome the measures Beijing announced on Dec. 7 to ease cross-border travel and predeparture requirements.

Perhaps the end of globalization is not upon us, because the world cannot afford it. Whether they like it or not, governments depend on one another not just to address global issues like climate change and poverty, but also to tap tremendous efficiency gains through cross-border trade and investment.

China’s reopening is therefore good news for Asia and the global economy, especially at a time when rising interest rates and surging energy prices are weighing heavily on consumers and businesses alike in the United States, Japan and Europe.

Beijing knows how indispensable global trade is to its own economy: It is the very force that helped it develop from an agrarian society into the industrial powerhouse it is today. This also explains why China’s voice is now one of the loudest defending the foundational principles of the World Trade Organization, even as other countries are throwing a spanner in the works through protectionist policies, economic sanctions and geopolitical alliances.

A case in point is the US restrictions on semiconductor shipments to China. Beijing announced on Monday that it had filed a dispute with the WTO over the matter, accusing Washington of threatening global supply chains.

China grew up with trade, and it is now acting as the grown-up in the room while other countries are trading little but barbs.

Welcome back to the world, China.