The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Dynamic Zero-COVID policy seeks to contain the spread of the virus by locking down entire cities for undefined periods of time. The mounting outrage by people quarantined in Shanghai, Beijing, and beyond, has sparked a grassroots trend to consider moving abroad. The internet buzzword used to describe this trend is “Run Xue.” But rather than tone down its unpopular policy, the CCP decided to double down by using “Mongoose Hunt 2022,” a policy intended to tighten China’s border controls and thus prevent the outflow of talent and capital.
Following the CCP’s lockdown of Shanghai, residents looked for ways to safely build consensus around people’s despair and dislike of China’s zero-COVID policy. To express their concerns without fear of censorship on China’s internet, the residents coined the term Run Xue. This term combines the English word run with the Chinese word Xue which means knowledge or wisdom. Run Xue’s hidden meaning suggests if you have the means to run or emigrate from China, you would be wise to do so.
