China really does not have a choice. Its main vaccine, made by Sinovac, isn't effective against Omicron [1]. Additionally, there is a large population of elderly people who are vulnerable with or without a vaccine. Same thing that happened in Hong Kong (death rate per million got to 3x the US' in its worst week) but in a scale 200x larger. Scary.
[1] - https://hongkongfp.com/2022/02/26/factwire-sinovac-limits-ho...