Lawmakers return to Washington this week to kick off a busy lame-duck session ahead of the holidays.

And as economic data, Fed policy, and a potential government shutdown remain in focus, there are now protests in China over COVID lockdowns for investors to consider.

With that in mind, here are three key stories to watch in business and politics this week:

Washington pushes back against China's zero-COVID policy as protests erupt

Some policymakers are speaking out against Chinese leader Xi Jinping's zero-COVID policies, which have sparked rare protests from Shanghai to Beijing that have drawn comparisons to the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square.

China's state-controlled media is still backing Xi's policies; however, the protests expose Xi's government to a new generation of democratic dissenters.

For his part, President Biden has been tight-lipped on China's COVID policies so far. The protests in China come as Biden and Xi moved to deescalate tensions between the nations during their face-to-face meeting earlier this month in Bali. Other administration officials, however, indicated this past weekend how the administration might respond.

“Obviously, [China's zero COVID policy] is not our strategy," White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha said to Martha Raddatz on ABC News. "We don’t think that’s realistic, certainly not realistic for the American people. Our strategy has been to build up immunity in the population by getting people vaccinated. That’s how you managed an incredibly contagious variant like Omicron.”

Economically, the protests and China's response to them will continue to highlight the risk that U.S. businesses face while operating in China.

Look no further than Apple. The tech giant's stock dipped about 2% on Friday amid unrest at Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant, a major iPhone manufacturing site where thousands of workers quit in part because of the zero-COVID policies.