China's recovery hinges on consumers – and they're not spending

But the pent-up wave of consumer spending that experts predicted would follow the policy's end has yet to take shape. The streets in the Jing'an district remain a little too quiet for shop owners like Liu. "We haven't had a good year for a while," he said. Shanghai - the commercial and financial capital of China - had it particularly hard, with a two-month lockdown that only started to ease in June. Despite its official end, the zero-COVID policy has taken a lingering toll on consumer demand. "With the complete overnight abandonment of zero-COVID, you'd think people would rush to…