Xi Jinping may be the most powerful autocrat in the world, but he was forced this week to pirouette to meet the demands of ordinary Chinese fed up with his failed “zero Covid” strategy.

Throngs of ordinary Chinese — “old hundred names” in Chinese parlance — took to the streets to express frustration with China’s repressive Covid lockdowns and, implicitly, with China’s overall repression. Many held up blank sheets of paper, signifying that they could not say what they wanted.

Xi read those blank sheets of paper, though. Police detained many protesters and blocked off areas where people might gather — but the Chinese government still was forced to bow to public opinion. It brightly declared a “new situation” and on Wednesday relaxed its Covid policy.

Without much acknowledging the protests and while pretending that this was all its own idea, the Chinese leadership declared an end to many of the most burdensome elements of its Covid policy, which has kept down the virus, as well as the Chinese people.

Lockdowns will become shorter and more targeted, and people who test positive for the coronavirus with mild symptoms can stay at home instead of being taken away to quarantine. Negative tests will no longer be routinely required in most public spaces. Cold medicines, whose sales had been curtailed so people couldn’t hide their Covid symptoms, will be available again.