China is struggling to cope with surging COVID-19 infections and deaths after the sudden lifting of President Xi Jinping’s draconian “zero-COVID” policy. The abrupt reversal of a three-year policy of strict lockdowns and intrusive testing came despite inadequate preparation for a widely anticipated surge in the disease. China’s hospital capacity, medicine stockpiles, and vaccine coverage of a large elderly population have fallen short in the face of the crisis. Meanwhile, the Communist Party’s stinginess with information and efforts to downplay the outbreak have raised alarm in an international community still wary after costly Chinese obfuscation in the initial Wuhan COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.