Decision-making processes, especially in times of crises are rarely presenting themselves so supra-rationally.
Meaning, that usually internal struggles will prevent the participants to be so generous, cool headed and foreward thinking.
Sure, the Politburo / Central Committee is small, but they still represent hundreds of millions of people, many different regions, cities, to a degree even many ethnic groups.
Usually shielding the elites does not show up as a goal, and differing circumstances of those can easily lead to serious opposition against the generally useful solutions.
We shall see how the current regime handles whatever history throws at them.
That’s naive and uninformed. Many Chinese political elites not on the side of Xin jing ping have been jailed and killed in recent years under the guise of corruption. Many corporate elites have been quarantined, jailed or killed, such as head of HNA and Wanda.
The only elite safe is xinjingping. Because he is the dictator
This is also naive and uniformed. Xi Jinping hardly has absolute power, there are a few very powerful red families pulling strings in the background, a lot of power brokers that are way in the background. Xi has power, is probably the most powerful man in China, but even he isn’t safe.
When the political power is not widely distributed, you can take care of the elites without hurting the economy.
If the top 100,000 power players and their families are shielded from the fallout, how much will that cost? Few $100 billions or so?