The zero Covid policy is Xi Jinping's idea and he has already doubled down on it publicly more than once.
The party congress is happening now/has been happening and Xi has worked to remove opposition to him staying in power for a 3rd term.
He won't want to allow any perceived weakness/lack of control in the near future.
Why do you think you're right?
The pandemic made it much harder to coordinate lab-based efforts like iGEM, the decrease in the number of teams during 2020-2021-2022 is unsurprising.
I expect somewhat of a reversion to the pre-pandemic mean with the possibility of upside towards earlier (~2014) numbers of teams.
However, I think that is less likely than a number in the 40-80 range. iGEM teams are time-consuming to set up and coordinate, I don't think we are likely to an explosion of new entrants.
Why might you be wrong?
Universities decide iGEM isn't worth the time and the team counts stay low