A health worker makes a heart with her hands while waiting to take swab samples from people in the Jing' an district of Shanghai on May 31, 2022, as the city prepares to lift more curbs after two months of heavy-handed restrictions. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

A municipal worker who helped with traffic control near a school is presented with flowers at the end of the national college entrance examinations, known as the gaokao, in Beijing, Friday, June 10, 2022. More than 11 million high school students throughout China took the annual college entrance exams which started on Tuesday after the country has just overcome severe COVID-19 outbreaks in Shanghai and Beijing, according to state media. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

A Chinese woman wears a protective mask as she shops in a market on February 6, 2020 in Beijing, China. The number of cases of a deadly new coronavirus rose to more than 28000 in mainland China Thursday, days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a global public health emergency. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Medical workers walk by a police robot at the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport after travel restrictions to leave Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and China's epicentre of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, were lifted, April 8, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Attendants wait for visitors to the the exhibition entitled “Forging Ahead in the New Era”, showing the country's achievements during his past two terms, at the Beijing Exhibition Center in Beijing on October 12, 2022, ahead of the 20th Communist Party Congress meeting. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

Panda keepers hold cubs while posing for photos ahead of the new year at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China's southwestern Sichuan province on December 29, 2022. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

This photo taken on March 10, 2023 shows a panda playing with one of its twin cubs at the Sibao Science Park in Xian in China's northern Shaanxi province. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Cosplayers at China Joy 2023, the city’s Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference in Shanghai, China on July 30, 2023. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)