Written on 8 January 2023. Posted in Article, Online Only, Op-eds. Author: Marine Brossard In October 2021 at a forum organised by the US–Asia Institute, China’s Ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, updated his American audience about the situation in his country. China remained isolated from the world after closing its borders in March 2020 following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic: One of these buzzwords was tangping (躺平, ‘lying flat’).