A video discussion was held on May 25 with 100,000 officials to discuss the unfolding economic situation, which Premier Li Keqiang says is worse than the situation faced by the country at the beginning of 2020 in the COVID crisis. The combined effect of the more restrictive international environment and the latest phase of the COVID crisis in China, which has affected both Shanghai and Beijing, will probably lead to a less-than-stellar performance in the second quarter of 2022. The epidemic and the quarantines hit both the Yangtze and the Pearl River Delta, major industrial regions, very hard, slowing the growth rate in the first quarter.