Anger Over Covid Lockdowns Mounts in Shanghai
By Stella Yifan Xie, & Natasha Khan, Apr. 15, 2022, WSJ

“I’ve lost confidence in this government,” said one
36-year-old Shanghai native surnamed Chen, who declined
to provide his given name because it remains risky to
openly criticize political leaders. “Only during a crisis
can you make a proper evaluation of the govt’s performance.”

Mr. Chen, who has been confined at home for over a month,
said he hasn’t been able to feed his family of four on the
govt-supplied rations of vegetables and milk. While he has
managed to order some groceries online, soaring prices and
scarce supplies of bread and other essentials risk draining
his savings as the lockdown drags on, he said.

“We’ve waited patiently for the lockdown to get lifted.
When will this end?” he said.

Shanghai eased rules in some neighborhoods this week, but most
residents remain confined to their homes. Some expressed worries
about food and said they are increasingly disillusioned by the
prospect of an open-ended Covid lockdown.

Among over two dozen residents who spoke from lockdown, some
said they are reaching a breaking point over 2 years into the
pandemic. Some are considering leaving the country for good.

“The damage has been done,” said Liu Yun, a 34-year-old Shanghai
native and technology entrepreneur who said he has begun contem-
plating emigrating to Singapore while confined at home with his
wife and two children. “More elites will start re-evaluating their relationship with the city and this country.”

Even those who aren’t considering leaving said they expect some
economic and psychological scars to endure, along with resentment
toward Beijing. China has stuck to a zero-Covid policy under
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who is widely expected this fall to
extend his rule for at least another five years.

87 of China’s biggest 100 cities, from Changchun in the country’s
far northeast to its southern metropolis of Guangzhou, collectively
accounting for more than half of China’s population and overall
economic output, have imposed restrictions on movements and
activities because of the current outbreak, according to an
estimate by Gavekal Dragonomics, a research firm. On Friday,
Xi’an, which earlier this year emerged from a monthlong lockdown,
tightened restrictions again.

Few cities in China have the economic and political importance
of Shanghai, which for most of the past century has been a base
of prosperity at the forefront of the country’s engagement with
the world. Shanghai has served as a laboratory for many of China’s
most important market reforms. It is home to the world’s largest
container port, the country’s main stock exchange and many of its
leading scholars, writers and artists.

The city has been a crucial steppingstone for generations of
China’s leaders, including Mr. Xi, who was appointed the city’s
top party official in 2007.

Shanghai earlier had a more lenient Covid strategy, using targeted
lockdowns for affected residences, but tightened and extended
restrictions amid a visit by Sun Chunlan, a vice premier, beginning
April 2. Residents see the change as a sign Beijing demanded full
compliance with China’s zero-Covid policy, which Mr. Xi has touted.

A spokesperson for the Shanghai government didn’t respond to a
request for comment.

Even as Covid cases spread in the city this spring, authorities
insisted that a citywide lockdown wouldn’t be necessary—right up
until the day before the abrupt March 27 announcement of mass
lockdown measures that caught tens of millions of residents unprepared.

That initial lockdown was set to last 4 days for the eastern half
of the city, then 4 days for the western half. With case counts
still soaring to new highs, however, authorities then said the
lockdown would be extended indefinitely. Many of those confined to
their homes because of potential contact with Covid cases before
the citywide lockdown have already been kept at home for over a
month, with no clear prospect of release soon.

Residents said they worry that even after the citywide restrictions
are lifted, the Omicron variant’s transmissibility means sudden
lockdowns and tough tactics could return at any time, casting a
cloud of uncertainty that could last for years.

Since the broad lockdowns began in late March, food shortages
have spread as pandemic measures upended supply chains, leaving
some reliant on bartering and the goodwill of neighbors to survive.
Some patients with non-Covid medical needs have been left to fend
for themselves, while many have resisted being sent to the city’s
chaotic and in some cases unhygienic makeshift quarantine centers.

Shanghai on Thursday reported a record 27,000 new daily infections
for the prior day, bringing the city’s total official caseload
since March 1 to more than 220,000 so far. While no deaths have
been reported by authorities, at least three large elderly care
hospitals have been overwhelmed by Covid outbreaks, resulting in
patient deaths.

Authorities have been swift to censor people’s complaints and
what they call rumors online. On March 22, two men who shared
information about Shanghai’s coming lockdown were investigated
by the police on suspicions of “spreading fabricated information.”
As the lockdown continues, more people are venting frustration at
the Covid restrictions, saying they are harming people’s livelihoods
and straining medical resources, despite potential repercussions.

In a viral online post, one Shanghai resident complained that the
endurance of residents had “reached its limit,” listing a litany
of tragedies and grievances. “Are there officials who still listen
to the people?” wrote the person, who identified herself only as
An Ordinary Citizen. “How much more do we have to pay in exchange
for truly putting people first?”

The post was blocked on Thursday for a few hours before being
restored that evening. The person didn’t respond to a request
for comment.

Frank Tsai, a longtime Shanghai resident who hosts business and
cultural events through his company China Crossroads, initially
supported the country’s strict Covid measures, but said he was
shocked by the food and supply bottlenecks in Shanghai, which is
widely regarded as one of China’s most progressive and
best-managed cities.

“This regime from its very founding was built on the elimination
of material anxiety, so it’s ironic that food insecurity is
happening in Shanghai of all places,” he said.

People must “firmly hold on to its pandemic policy without
wavering,” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said Thursday in
an editorial, calling on the public to “look at the big picture”
despite the hardships. “Persistence is victory,” Mr. Xi was quoted
saying.

The People’s Daily, the Communist Party organ, implored citizens
to “grit their teeth” and put their faith in government officials.

Some expatriates said the current lockdown is the final straw
after several years in which they felt China was turning
increasingly inward. “We are at a critical point. People are
really fed up,” said Bettina Schoen-Behanzin, vice president of
the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

Mr. Liu, the technology entrepreneur, was first confined to his
home with his wife and two children on March 14, when the entrance
to his residential compound was abruptly sealed after several
neighbors were identified as “close contacts” with infected
individuals. Later, the stringent citywide lockdowns began.

Mr. Liu’s social-media feed became filled with videos and
messages of physical conflicts between residents and health
workers tasked with keeping people at home, making him more
anxious and pessimistic.

“I’m afraid that this fight against the pandemic will evolve
into some kind of social movement, where people at the bottom of
the society end up hurting each other,” said Mr. Liu. “That’s terrifying.”

Mr. Liu said he also worries about the roughly 200 employees
at the company he founded 10 years ago, a business-to-business
e-commerce platform, many of whom are struggling to get enough
food during the lockdown. His company, too, is struggling from
waning demand that he attributes in part to the country’s lockdowns.

Li Bing, a 33-year-old employee at a different technology company,
said he felt emotionally weighed down after reading numerous online
pleas from residents struggling to get enough food and medical help.
Last week, a video showing a pandemic prevention worker in a hazmat
suit beating a corgi to death after its owners were sent to a
centralized quarantine center sparked online fury.

“What would happen to my cats? Would they be beaten to death?” said
Mr. Li, a native of Xi’an who has lived in Shanghai for six years
with his girlfriend and two cats. He said the prospect of testing
positive for Covid has stirred his anxiety and made him more eager
to leave China than ever.

“We have witnessed so many humanitarian disasters already,” said
Mr. Li. “I simply want to live as a normal person, with dignity.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/anger-over-covid-lockdowns-mounts-in-shanghai-11650039314

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