In ChinaChina, mass complianceCompliance with some of the world’s most restrictive infection control measures achieved unparalleled results in the control of COVID-19COVID-19 during the first two-and-a-half years of the pandemic. This was achieved with the so-called zero-COVIDZero-COVID policy, which ended in December 2022. The level of control over the spread of COVID-19COVID-19 that ChinaChina was initially able to achieve relied in large part on the mass complianceCompliance of its enormous population. In this chapter, we draw upon ethnographic data gathered over a three-year time period in Shanghai, ChinaChina to suggest some reasons for the ready complianceCompliance with zero-COVIDZero-COVID that was exhibited by so many Chinese citizens for so long. Rejecting simplistic explanations that attribute popular support for government policies entirely to authoritarian control or collectivist instincts, we show how a combination of self-interest, nationalisticNationalism pride, and trustTrust in the central government’s competence drove popular complianceCompliance with China’sChina policies. When these factors were no longer in place, resistance to government policies grew, culminating in the abandonment of zero-COVIDZero-COVID. Our findings offer lessons for future epidemic control within and beyond the Chinese context.