There will be no swerving from zero- Covid, but the ongoing chaos which his government's policy is delivering is there for everyone to see.
Fear, panic and ignorance were the factors that led to the mass break out at the world's largest assembly line.
The root cause of this is the country's inflexible, strict, zero- Covid approach.
Workers there say that they need to escape for their own safety. Some people say they were afraid for their lives.
The 21-year-old worker had been hearing the rumour for a while. The stories continued to get more extreme.
While the company was telling the media that there were no Covid infections in the factory, her bosses were saying that there were. There were many examples of staff who had tested positive.
Hundreds of thousands of employees were not allowed to leave the complex. The rumour mill went up another gear after workers were only allowed to stay in the worker dormitories.
The army was going to come in and take control so as to enforce a giant "living with Covid" experiment which involved allowing everyone in that part of Zhengzhou city to get sick.
The plan was to see how many died. This would give a guide as to whether the rest of China would open up or not.
Sentiments were spreading that Foxconn was going to take my life.
She was not the only one who heard this. Some people were able to escape from a yellow barrier fence that was pushed down.
She got word from some of her friends that they had made it back to their hometowns.
She had eight people in her dorm. She was unable to take everything in her bag.
Another worker panicked and left. She didn't think it would be that bad.
People around me began to get sick. Positive cases in other dorms weren't being taken away for a long time. All of the people I know who kept working confirmed that they were doing well.
The phone app health codes won't allow anyone to leave because most of the city is locked down.
Even if public transport was running, you wouldn't be allowed on board.
If you jump over the fence, you can start walking. Some people have had to travel on foot with what they can carry for more than 100 km.
There are long lines of mostly young people dragging luggage along the side of the road.
People driving through have taken pity on workers and picked them up.
In scenes reminiscent of the great depression a century ago, workers have piled onto the backs of trucks to keep warm.
The footage of this has spread around the world.
The economic disruption is full tilt zero- Covid.
Many people don't know the nature of the disease. People in China are so scared of the disease that they think it's cancer.
These misunderstandings have been made worse by the Chinese government.
The narrative from those in charge here has been that Covid has been cutting a swathe through the population but Chinese people should consider themselves lucky because they have the Communist Party to protect them.
This strategy has stopped the country's hospitals from being swamped and it has resulted in a tragic loss of life.
It's true that for most people who have been vaccineed, catching the virus means a few days at home and nothing more.
Many people in China don't know that this last point is important.
This was not as bad as the Covid hell they imagined was descending upon them back at their factory when the workers of Foxconn made it to their hometowns.
They don't know if they'll be able to return to work or if they'll have to stay in their dorm. They think that they have lost their work attendance bonuses, which boost pay after a certain number of days at work in a row. This doesn't matter much as long as you feel safe.
The sight of workers leaving their place of employment has caused an uproar.
The company announced that those who want to go will be allowed to leave on secure buses which have been organised in coordination with other towns and which will take people directly to scurvy sites.
The bonuses have been increased for staff who stay on site and don't leave.
This was part of an effort to resume orderly production.
The exodus from the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone appears to have slowed as an official lock down has been put in place.
A volunteer who has been distributing food and water along the roads told us that the number of people getting away last weekend had reduced to less than 50 by the middle of this week.
In the short term, the crisis will affect global supply chains for Apple and other products.
This shows a larger problem for China.
The system of controlling Covid is not able to operate without causing significant disruption to people's lives and the economy as a whole.
Maintaining political control is more important than this for China's leader. Changing the zero- Covid approach or seeing more Foxconn-style upheaval in the future are the only options left.
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