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Coronavirus

Shanghai's Lockdowns Result in Starvation and Quarantine Enforcers Being Attacked

More than 25 million people remain locked down in Shanghai, with Guangzhou—a city of 18 million—looking primed to follow.

Liz Wolfe | 4.11.2022 5:50 PM

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featurechinapix136913 | YUYU CHEN/FEATURECHINA/Newscom
(YUYU CHEN/FEATURECHINA/Newscom)

In Shanghai, 25 million people remain locked down as 26,087 new COVID cases were reported on Sunday.

The situation has grown increasingly dire: Two people who tried to leave their apartment to walk their dog were confronted by a COVID prevention worker who they ended up attacking. At least one man allegedly tried to get the cops to apprehend him so he could at least have food to eat. Meanwhile, people who end up in central quarantine—state-administered facilities where COVID-positive people are sometimes sent so others in their apartment buildings don't get sick—complain about the fact that it's so unhygienic, it may well be facilitating greater spread of the virus (or even reinfection). Shared rooms, no running water, broken toilets (or disgusting ones shared by hundreds of people), and people crammed into overflow beds in hospital hallways have grown to be expected by the city's increasingly angry residents.

There've now been many videos showing Shanghai healthworkers' aggression & violence towards people/pets, but it works both ways. Frustrations are building. This healthworker was allegedly attacked after stopping these two people who went outside to walk the dog against the rules. pic.twitter.com/WwAbbIcmqs

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) April 7, 2022

It's not so much that many people oppose centralized quarantine, it's just that the situations at many Shanghai facilities are so bad: lack of supplies, lack of staff, lack of hygiene. These photos were posted on Weibo by a Shanghai resident quarantined in Pudong today. pic.twitter.com/mWQUed3T7A

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) April 11, 2022

The degree of desperation is epitomized by this clip from a few days ago. This young man called the police saying that his family had run out of food for four day. He wanted to go to the police headquarters and be apprehended so that he would be fed.

— Dali L. Yang (@Dali_Yang) April 8, 2022

"I know many people don't believe me, if I didn't know it first hand, I wouldn't believe you if you told me that in 2022, people in a cosmopolitan city can't buy food every day and eating is a problem, but it's really happening." You can read the entire message in English

— Dali L. Yang (@Dali_Yang) April 8, 2022

This is all after reports emerged that parents were being separated from their COVID-positive children (a policy officials claim has been altered, with parents now allowed to apply to remain with their sick, minor children). Meanwhile, last week, a graphic video went viral on Chinese social media of a COVID prevention worker killing a family's corgi dog in the streets.

Given the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) aggressive track record of censorship and tight media control, it's noteworthy that so much information has leaked through what is termed the "Great Firewall"—China's internet censorship apparatus—and made its way to the Western press. But this may be a somewhat deliberate tradeoff on the part of the CCP, recognizing that while they can't fully suppress the horror scenes, they can scapegoat lower-level officials as a form of damage control instead.

"Chinese censorship is more complicated than just trying to stop negative information," Jeremy Daum, senior fellow at Yale Law's Paul Tsai China Center, tells Reason. The CCP has "made announcements about cracking down on 'rumors,' but to put a city as cosmopolitan and populous as Shanghai under total information quarantine would probably be impractical and counterproductive," he says. If the city's residents were to feel "silenced," that "would probably be more disruptive of social order and a bigger threat to stable government than letting people vent."

"Censorship isn't always a blunt tool," says Daum, "especially when directed by higher-level authorities. They try to be cognizant of public opinion, because the goal is stability, and there has to be a cost-benefit analysis."

Meanwhile, Guangzhou, a manufacturing hub home to more than 18 million people, looks disturbingly primed to follow in Shanghai's footsteps, as COVID cases spread and travel to the city is sealed off.

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NEXT: Two Cops Will Not Face Discipline For Pushing a 75-Year-Old to the Ground. You Can Thank the Police Union.

Liz Wolfe is an associate editor at Reason.

CoronavirusChinaPandemicXi JinpingAuthoritarianismCensorshipSocial MediaSocial collapseGovernment abuse
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  1. Longtobefree   3 years ago

    Coming soon to a democratic city near you.

    Remember, remember, the eighth of November.

    1. JesseAz   3 years ago

      stop with the snark. We need to start flying all of these refugees into the United States as soon as possible.

      1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

        Think of the fortification 25 million extra ballots would provide!

      2. Fats of Fury   3 years ago

        They won't have to leave Shanghai to vote. They probably already voted.

    2. perlmonger   3 years ago

      Three cheers for Beijing! Lockdown incoming for 2020-Two! Man, what a public relations disaster if video got out of the desperate citizens of China's capitol screaming out their windows at night as they starved to death from the incompetence of communism.

      1. Brandybuck   3 years ago

        > the incompetence of communism.

        It won't be the first time there was mass starvation in communist China.

  2. Stuck in California   3 years ago

    >This healthworker was allegedly attacked after stopping these two people who went outside to walk the dog

    This kind of makes me happy. I don't think that it's a good thing, but at what point is the bureaucrat's lackey complicit? Sure, he's just "doing his job" an we won't godwin's law it to call him a concentration camp guard or anything, but he's the point of the spear for ridiculous control.

    Here's the analogy. You push someone in the chest. You didn't hit them, you didn't theoretically hurt them like a punch, it's forgivable. You push again. And again. And again, and you poke them and push them and poke them and they keep calm but get more and more frustrated... you never punched them but keep shoving.

    Then, when one of them gets pissed off and punches you in the nose you scream "Why did you do that? I never punched you? I was just doing my job?" and blame it on the person whose patience you've exhausted.

    Whose fault is it, really?

    1. Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)   3 years ago

      Are you kidding? I would have gouged the fucker's eyes out so he couldn't identify me.

      The lackeys of totalitarian regimes deserve what their master get. End of story.

      1. Stuck in California   3 years ago

        No, I'm not kidding.

        Part of polite society is forgiving people transgressions, and hoping they forgive yours. I don't go around being violent just because I can, and expect the same of others.

        But this dude? He's getting a beatdown for every asshole move his governmental agency and fellow health workers have done. And in this case, I feel quite the sense of schadenfreude.

        They should show this at government lackey training seminars under the banner "This is what happens when you go too far." Because people starving over draconian restrictions is past the breaking point. It is where someone no longer feels like they have anything to lose, and the man with nothing to lose is dangerous indeed.

        1. Granite   3 years ago

          Ccp doesn’t care about their lackeys either.
          Everyone’s simply a statistic, and you can’t blame them either, we are predisposed to look at commoners as expendable once we get to the top of any ladder. Humans are really bad at managing others’ lives. It’s totally foreign to our survival instincts, and practically unbelievable that we’ve made it this far.

          I look forward to our future selves being engineered appropriately someday. Eugenics is the only solution.

    2. LibertyWeeb   3 years ago

      "And how we burned in the camps later..."

    3. R Mac   3 years ago

      I suppose it’s possible that someone would get to the second push in my chest in certain situations, but they wouldn’t get a chance for a third.

  3. Palin's Buttplug   3 years ago

    All Biden's Fault! If only Sleepy Joe had handled COVID properly back in 2020 we wouldn't be in this tight spot.

    Oh, and KEYSTONE XL! And HUNTERS LAPTOP!

    LAWD HEP US!

    1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

      I'm pretty sure that your rig count/smokeless tobacco price ratio will save us, Pluggo.

      1. Palin's Buttplug   3 years ago

        Exploratory rig count has tripled with Biden, you idiot.

        Of course he should get Zero credit for that fact.

        But at least you liars can't say that Biden outlawed drilling in the US.

        1. Vexatious   3 years ago

          You’re a faggot pedophile Marxist. You should be executed for all of that. No one is interest in your bullshit claims either. Best you just STFU and kill yourself.

          Stupid cunt.

          1. Palin's Buttplug   3 years ago

            You're a cocksucking conservative cuckold who can't muster a hardon anymore unless you're wife is getting reamed.

            1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

              And you can't muster a hardon anymore unless the kid is screaming. You probably shouldn't cast sexual aspersions on others, Pluggo.

        2. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

          "But at least you liars can't say that Biden outlawed drilling in the US"

          How about if Biden says it?

          "Biden suspends oil and gas leasing in slew of executive actions on climate change"
          www (dot) cnbc (dot) com/2021/01/27/biden-suspends-oil-and-gas-drilling-in-series-of.html

          1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

            Biden Administration Halts New Drilling

            1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

              Biden administration halts oil drilling in Alaska

              Still a lie, Shrike?

              1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

                Biden Admin Won’t Appeal Judge’s Ruling Revoking Gulf Of Mexico Leases

                Joe Biden, Shrike's defender of common sense energy policy.

          2. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

            In the idiot’s mind, banning is not outlawing.

            1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

              The funniest part about him lying like this, is that the administration has been pretty proud and public about their intent to destroy the oil industry.

              1. JesseAz   3 years ago

                This is what, the 30th thread hes made a fool of himself regarding this shit?

    2. Brian   3 years ago

      I had to get this car in a China article to see the word”Biden.”

    3. R Mac   3 years ago

      Turn yourself in for your crimes against children.

    4. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

      Turn yourself in for crimes against children.

    5. Joe Brandon   3 years ago

      GFY pedo

    6. Its_Not_Inevitable   3 years ago

      Text book Deflect and Redirect.

  4. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

    World Economic Forum and the Democrats feverishly taking notes.

  5. Unicorn Abattoir   3 years ago

    "More than 25 million people remain locked down in Shanghai"

    They were Shanghai'd in Shanghai.

    1. Vexatious   3 years ago

      Too bad the Chinese can’t overthrow the ChiCom regime. It would set a good precedent and inspire people in……. Other countries to do the same with their Marxists..

  6. Brian   3 years ago

    Move over, Zelenskyy: now Chairman Jinping is making the democrats moist!

    1. Palin's Buttplug   3 years ago

      I know you are an idiot and can't see the fact that right wing authoritarian governments are on the rise as well as those from the left.

      Democracies reflect fear today. All over the world.

      True fact you won't see on Bratfart.com.

      1. damikesc   3 years ago

        I'd love to see you define who the "right wing authoritarian governments" are.

        1. Palin's Buttplug   3 years ago

          Modi, Bolsonaro, Putin, Orban, the Middle East mullahs, to name a few. LaPen could win in France .

          My spelling may be off.

          1. damikesc   3 years ago

            ME mullahs are not conservative. Theocracy has nothing to do with classical liberalism which is the basis for modern political conservatism.

            Modi: do not know enough of his policies but your word is hardly sufficient.

            Putin: A central government that runs the country seems like a progressive dream.

            Orban is less authoritarian than Biden.

            LePen is also less authoritarian than Biden.

            1. Zeb   3 years ago

              Theocracy has nothing to do with classical liberalism which is the basis for modern political conservatism.
              That's only true in places where classical liberalism is a traditional political value like the US and a few other places.

            2. Granite   3 years ago

              So they’re bad, like he was saying. Dumbass.

            3. JohnZ   3 years ago

              The reason as to why Orban is on the E.U.'s shitelist is that he's closed the borders to invaders.He won't allow them in and that upsets the child molesters(E.U.) in Brussels to no end.

          2. XM   3 years ago

            That's strange, I don't remember Modi, Bolsonaro and Orban locking down and starving a city of Shanghai's size in the name of battling Covid. The middle eastern guys are religious fanatics and run police states, but 70% of their people would vote for the democrat party in the US.

            Covid authoritarianism is a world wide incident. But FL didn't drag people to quarantine camps like China or NZ. Nor did they freeze bank accounts of people merely donating to a protest. You getting the picture?

          3. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

            Tell us about it again when Modi, Bolsonaro, Orban and LaPen are canceling elections, invading Iraq and genociding Uighurs.

            "the Middle East mullahs are the same thing as Western conservatives!!!"

            Lol.

          4. But SkyNet is a Private Company   3 years ago

            Putin and “the mullahs” just rose to power?

            1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

              Shrike fancies himself a timelord.

      2. Brian   3 years ago

        How interesting.

        Did you know that three-toes sloths are the slowest animals in the world?

  7. Adans smith   3 years ago

    Thomas Friedman approves these methods.

  8. damikesc   3 years ago

    Dr Fauci whole heartedly approves.

  9. mad.casual   3 years ago

    Healthcare workers, Starvation and Quarantine Enforcers: tomato, tomahto

    1. Ronbback   3 years ago

      Name three people who should be shot.
      these enforcers are literally taking kids from families and killing their pets. but heck they are only doing their jobs. we've heard that one before.

      all this and they still don't get zero covid so this is a pure pleasure of power and nothing to do with covid

  10. cgr2727   3 years ago

    It’s not just manufacturing and assembly that, been offshores to (formerly) low cost regions like China; in most cases it goes all the way down the chain to raw materials and sub-components. For example, I’ll bet there are three dozen factories in and around Shanghai that make small engines, sheet metal stampings for things like feed chutes, metal feed rollers, and high-strength steel blades. Heck, they could probably assemble a few thousand woodchippers, no sweat. Maybe they should keep a few instead of exporting all of them.

    1. perlmonger   3 years ago

      *stands*

      *applause*

    2. The Encogitationer   3 years ago

      Congratulations! You win the Internet for the Day and, if they ever swing it, free lifetime Pu-Pu Platers from every restauranteur in Shanghai!

  11. XM   3 years ago

    What's happening in China is merely the worst form of Covid authoritarianism. NZ, Canada, Australia and even parts of the United States belong to the same cabal.

    The western wing of the organization will hem and haw about how THEIR lockdown measures were more reasonable. But once they exile infected people to quarantine "resorts", enforce vaccine passports and deny transplants to healthy unvaccinated patients, their status as liberal democracies are very much in doubt.

    If you arrest someone for sitting unmasked in a car, are you THAT much better than Chinese thugs who hound Shanghai residents who walk deserted streets with their dogs? Lest they go insane for being imprisoned in their homes for a month? These people think think J6 was some insurrection. Most of the country laughs at their complete lack of self awareness.

    1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

      Most of the country wants to hang them.

    2. Homple   3 years ago

      Is it really the 'vid, or did something worse just escape from one of Tony Fauci's frankenvirus factories?

  12. CharlesWT   3 years ago

    The huge middle-class, upper-middle-class, and the very rich population of Shanghai are finding out they're just grist for the CCP mill just like the lowest peasant in the rural areas.

    1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

      The other day I saw a video of a guy ranting in the street about how he was starving to death and nobody can go check on his mother. He was asking "WHERE IS COMMUNISM?"

      Communism is what you're living, dude. You're the one being sacrificed for the greater good.

      1. CharlesWT   3 years ago

        Socialism with Chinese Characteristics looks a lot like fascism. In normal times, the government provides very little or no social services. In times of crisis, including the ones it creates, it's completely overwhelmed.

      2. perlmonger   3 years ago

        "You're choking on it!"

        -to the tune of the old Palmolive commercials...

  13. justabill   3 years ago

    Joe Friday's paradise.

  14. CharlesWT   3 years ago

    When your tool is a sledgehammer, everything looks like a railroad spike.

  15. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

    In Shanghai, 25 million people remain locked down as 26,087 new COVID cases were reported on Sunday.
    -------
    Just over 1 case per million people. Think this is about a virus in the slightest?

    1. rbike   3 years ago

      1 case per 1000. Still trivial but proper math.

  16. CharlesWT   3 years ago

    Video pod-casters who have direct contact with people in Shanghai and other parts of China

    "Emergency - Military Called in as Chaos in Shanghai Erupts after Children Taken Away"
    The lockdowns in Shanghai, China, are absolutely insane, and we got people sending us their footage and stories about it.

    Zero Covid Policy Causes Mass Uprisings in China

    1. perlmonger   3 years ago

      I mean, the fall of Communist China would make for an interesting twist to the decade...

  17. Corporatist Remover   3 years ago

    There's a special place in hell reserved for quarantine enforcers, especially the ones who are killing people's pets.

  18. Brian   3 years ago

    “…and they were never seen again.”

    1. Adrian Smith   3 years ago

      The number of satellites in orbit has become sufficient to experience this problem. The problem is litigation of dangerous parts from non-working satellites that can crash into new satellites. You can also observe monopolies among certain satellite technologies. Number of Satellites in Orbit This Year May Exceed 3000: What Does It Mean? - Orbital Today. Together with the development of satellite systems, new challenges that need to be solved also appear.

  19. Nardz   3 years ago

    The entire world is gripped by disaster.
    Inflation, energy shortages, looming famine, psychological ailments, psychosis, derangement, depression, war w/o attempts at peace, supply chain disruption, etc.

    We all see this. We know it's going to get worse.

    And the hell of it is: it's entirely man-made. None of these crises are natural. None of them are hard to solve.
    They've all been engineered, orchestrated by malicious rulers creating problems by getting in the way of natural behavior.

    And we just fucking watch.

    1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

      Yep. Complete disaster because the 'leaders' think they can control everything that happens and not turn it into a giant clusterfuck just like everybody else who has tried it.

      But it's not different this time. Humans are still humans. Hopefully this time we won't have to go through decades of disaster before we can right the ship.

    2. The Encogitationer   3 years ago

      And in the midst of these man-made problems, Putin is a man too...and supports everything Xi is doing to his own people, if only as a distraction from what Putin's doing to Ukraine and to the Russian people...

  20. DenverJ   3 years ago

    I'm wondering why the Chinese are doing this? Do they know something we don't? Have they not gotten the Omicron variant? Are they trying to reduce the population ala Stalin? It's very weird. Or is this column from 2 years ago?

    1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

      Maybe intentional supply chain disruption? Maybe trying to scare the world back into lockdown? Maybe giving the Democrats an excuse to pass mail-in voting rules so they can properly fortify the midterms?

    2. JeremyR   3 years ago

      There's two problems - they've always tried lockdowns to achieve zero Covid and they have crappy vaccines that don't work very well. So its people are very susceptible to it.

      With that said, given their attitude towards life, it's weird that they care if people get it.

      1. Yes Way, Ted   3 years ago

        “they have crappy vaccines that don't work very well”

        No difference there.

      2. DarrenM   3 years ago

        I'm assuming they are afraid it will spread to the ruling class. It's not the the oligarchy of a few old men. They need the support of the 90 million members of the CCP and of the military and their families and relations.

    3. Brandybuck   3 years ago

      It's BA.2. The least dangerous variant out there. 25,000 cases, but in a city of 25,000,000 people. Cases, not hospitalizations. Cases, not deaths. We don't know how many deaths, but for a city of that size, 1,000 deaths a day from all causes would not be out of line.

      There is no other way to describe this than a gross overreaction by an authoritarian government.

  21. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

    When all you've got is a hammer...

    Maybe more accurately, when all you've ever chosen to pick up is the hammer, everything becomes a nail.

    This is what communists do. It's an abhorrent, dehumanizing philosophy that ultimately sees the workers sacrificed for the accredited elite. Every time.

    1. Squirrelloid   3 years ago

      But they don't just have a hammer. They also have a sickle.

  22. Art-P.O.G.   3 years ago

    I thought COVID doesn’t spread much outdoors. So I guess people can’t walk their dogs because then it’s a slippery slope to breaking quarantine entirely?

    1. CharlesWT   3 years ago

      Most of what the CCP is doing is reactionary nonsense. Such as forcing people to get tested for COVID every other day. But doing the testing jam-packed testing stations.

    2. JeremyR   3 years ago

      Did you miss what happened in blue states last summer? People were ticketed for going to the beach or playgrounds (heck, in some places, they welded playgrounds closed, though unlike the Chinese, not with the kids still in them)

  23. n00bdragon   3 years ago

    I have some inlaws in Shanghai, currently in lockdown. They sent the family a picture of their government issued food box for the week: One package of dry spaghetti, three ramen noodle packets, one can of campbells Oxtail Soup, a box of tea bags, one can of spam, and a bottle of "Covid pills". It's a complete madhouse. I would expect full on rioting to start up soon, but you can't riot on an empty stomach.

    1. perlmonger   3 years ago

      But... the riot cops are made out of meat! Get 'em!

      1. DarrenM   3 years ago

        And China is known for plenty of spices and seasonings and various ways of cooking their food.

  24. Bill Godshall   3 years ago

    Looks like Covid has come back to haunt the Communist Chinese government officials (i.e. Xi) who lied about the virus' origin and its rapid spread in Wuhan as hundreds/thousands of infected people flew out of Wuhan to spread it throughout the world.

    Couldn't have happened to a more deserving regime.

    We may now see Chinese sheeple rise up and revolt.

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