World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday repeated his judgment that China’s strategy of controlling the coronavirus with harsh lockdowns is “not sustainable.”

“We know the virus better and we have better tools, including vaccines, so that’s why the handling of the virus should actually be different from what we used to do at the start of the pandemic,” Tedros said, alluding to China’s strict citywide lockdowns.

Tedros added that W.H.O. advised Beijing that the latest mutations of the coronavirus are considerably different from the original strain, so different methods might be advisable to control new outbreaks.

Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the W.H.O. Health Emergencies Program, was more bluntly critical of China’s approach, which has inflicted horrific humanitarian and economic damage on cities such as Shanghai. “A suppression-only strategy is not a sustainable way to exit the pandemic for any country,” Ryan said.

W.H.O. first labeled China’s lockdown policy “unsustainable” last week, a critique angrily dismissed as “irresponsible” by the Chinese Communist Party. China then ordered its massive censorship apparatus to delete posts quoting W.H.O. officials and photos of Tedros on Chinese social media.