Signs are that there are several reasons to be optimistic China may consider to reopen its borders in the not so-distant future, with recent events indicating an underlying acceptance that COVID, even in China, will be something we just live with.
The first indications came recently through the subtle wording that is “dynamic zero-COVID policy”, which began ever-so-quietly emerging in some of Xinhua News Agency’s lesser-visited dungeons.
第一个迹象最近通过“动态零新冠政策”这一微妙措辞出现，该措辞开始在新华社一些人迹罕至的地牢中悄然出现。
Dynamic, of course, means changing, which in turn means zero that isn’t actually zero.
当然，动态意味着变化，而变化又意味着零，但实际上并不是零。
Then this Monday, 28 February, came a post on Weibo by Zeng Guang, who is part of an expert group working with the National Health Commission.
然后，2月28日星期一，国家卫健委专家组成员曾光在微博上发了一条帖子。
In reference to the strategy of keeping COVID at bay ad nauseam, Zeng said that it cannot “remain unchanged forever”. Referring to the goal of keeping deaths and infections at tolerable levels, he also remarked, “It is the long-term goal of humanity to co-exist with the virus”.
在谈到遏制新冠病毒令人作呕的策略时，曾庆红表示，它不能“永远保持不变”。在谈到将死亡和感染控制在可容忍水平的目标时，他还表示，“与病毒共存是人类的长期目标”。
Zeng was previously chief scientist at Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. He also helped engineer China’s response to COVID in its earliest stages, reports WION.
曾任美国疾病预防控制中心首席科学家。据 WION 报道，他还帮助中国在早期阶段应对新冠肺炎疫情。
Such moves are small steps for China in more or less confronting the inevitable; get over it, and live with it.
这些举措或多或少都是中国在面对不可避免的事情时迈出的一小步。克服它，并忍受它。
“In the near future, at the right time, the roadmap for Chinese-style co-existence with the virus should be presented”, Zeng said, reported Caixin yesterday, 2 March.
据财新网昨天（3 月 2 日）报道，曾表示，“在不久的将来，在适当的时候，应该会提出中国式与病毒共存的路线图”。
He was also unusually outspoken in his praise of Western countries, for their showing of “commendable courage”, in preserving their ways of life by learning to live with COVID. China, he said, should “observe and learn”.
他还异乎寻常地直言不讳地赞扬西方国家通过学习与新冠病毒共处来保持自己的生活方式，表现出了“值得赞扬的勇气”。他说，中国应该“观察和学习”。
But Zeng was more guarded in speaking with the Beijing News, saying there is still “no need to open the country’s doors at the peak of the global pandemic”.
但曾庆红在接受新京报采访时显得更加谨慎，称“在全球疫情最严重的时候，仍然没有必要打开国门”。
Finally, there is the mounting and stratospheric economic cost. The Nanjinger spoke this morning with a high-level source who said there are those in the government who believe that unless things change soon, we may in fact now be only halfway down the hill which leads into the gigantic financial pit of COVID.
最后，经济成本不断上升。 《南京人》今天上午采访了一位高层消息人士，该消息人士表示，政府中有些人认为，除非情况很快发生变化，否则我们实际上可能只是在走向新冠巨大金融深渊的半山腰。
Pit, peak or no peak, we can have greater confidence that China’s borders will undoubtedly reopen. But will it be 2 years after COVID emerged or 3?
无论有没有高峰，我们都可以更有信心，中国的边境一定会重新开放。但是在新冠病毒出现后 2 年还是 3 年呢？
