![]() Now all that has just crumbled.”įor now, the government looks largely unmoved. “I used to live pretty comfortably, and before anything had happened, everyone was very polite, very rule abiding. Wu, who had not considered herself political before the lockdown. “I thought, whatever, I’ll just go for it,” said Ms. She then shared a photo of the encounter on social media, despite the officers’ warnings against doing so. She recorded her defiant confrontation with them, in which she asked why they were wasting time harassing her, when they could be helping people in need of care. “I’m just too angry, too sad,” said Kristine Wu, a 28-year-old employee of a tech company who was visited at home by two police officers after she criticized the city’s Communist Party leader on social media. But in Shanghai, which has recorded more than 70,000 cases since March 1, that is proving more difficult. It is also a political test of the zero tolerance approach at large, on which the Communist Party has staked its legitimacy.įor much of the past two years, the Chinese government has stifled most domestic criticism of its zero tolerance Covid strategy, through a mixture of censorship, arrests and success at keeping caseloads low. ![]() ![]() The crisis in Shanghai is shaping up to be more than just a public health challenge. What has been different is the response: an outpouring of public dissatisfaction rarely seen in China since the chaotic early days of the pandemic, in Wuhan. Residents have confronted officials over containment policies that they see as unfair or inhumane, then shared recordings of those arguments online.Īs the coronavirus races through Shanghai, in the city’s worst outbreak since the pandemic began, the authorities have deployed their usual hard-nosed playbook to try and stamp out transmission, no matter the cost. Patients have demanded to speak with higher-ups about shoddy conditions at isolation facilities. “If Shanghai, this city of ours, came to a complete halt, there would be many international cargo ships floating in the East China Sea,” said Wu Fan, a medical expert on the taskforce, during a daily virus press briefing held by the city government.Parents have organized petitions, imploring the government not to separate children infected with the coronavirus from their families. The official said a lockdown in Shanghai, the country’s major financial and trading hub, would “impact the entire national economy and the global economy”. ![]() Areas to the west of the Huangpu River will have similar restrictions imposed.Ī member of the city’s pandemic taskforce had over the weekend vowed Shanghai would not shut down. Shanghai’s public security bureau said it was closing cross-river bridges and tunnels, and highway tollbooths concentrated in the city’s eastern districts until 1 April. Those involved with providing vital services such as gas, electricity, transport, sanitation and the supply of food would be exempt from the stay-at-home order. Residents were told to stay indoors during the lockdowns, and all business employees and government personnel not involved in the supply of essential services were advised to work from home. The city’s sprawling eastern half, known as Pudong, which includes the main international airport and financial district, would be locked down for testing beginning on Monday morning and ending on 1 April.Īfter that, the city’s western half, known as Puxi and featuring the historic Bund riverfront, would be locked down until 5 April, the government added. The city government said in a public notice on Sunday that the two-part lockdown was being implemented “to curb the spread of the epidemic, ensure the safety and health of the people” and root out cases of infection as soon as possible. Some said healthcare workers arrived to conduct tests at 7am on Monday. Now, in the eastern part of Shanghai, residents are confined to their homes, too. Millions of residents in affected areas across the country have been subjected to citywide lockdowns. However, a record 3,450 asymptomatic cases were reported in Shanghai on Sunday, accounting for nearly 70% of the nationwide total, along with 50 symptomatic cases, the city government said on Monday.Ĭhina’s National Health Commission on Monday reported 5,134 new asymptomatic cases for the previous day, and 1,219 local confirmed infections.Īlthough the case numbers remain relatively insignificant in a global context, they are China’s highest since the first weeks of the pandemic, which was first reported in the city of Wuhan in late 2019.
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