Shanghai’s lockdown desperation shocks the world and could be a problem for President Xi. -- China Boss update 4.08.22
Update
What’s happening.
Shanghai Covid outbreak: Similar to Hong Kong, but much greater scale
While Hong Kong, a city of 7.4 million, is succumbing to "its biggest and most devastating" outbreak of coronavirus yet, Shanghai has over 26 million people in lockdown and has become the epicenter of China’s latest Omicron spread that sees “numbers doubling roughly every five days,” according to Foreign Policy’s China editor James Palmer.
Palmer, Foreign Policy:
Shanghai remains the epicenter of the outbreak, with over 83 percent of cases, although numbers are also growing in neighboring provinces. Mass testing in the city is uncovering a very high number of asymptomatic cases, suggesting that other regions with lower rates of testing probably have large numbers of undetected cases. (China also uses a very particular definition of “asymptomatic” cases, excluding many that would be considered symptomatic in other countries.) The number of deaths remains officially very low, though deaths in old age facilities are likely being underreported.
Why it matters.
EU Chamber of Commerce says Shanghai's lockdown is the "nail-in-the-coffin" for the city's attractiveness to foreign business
In an interview with Bloomberg news, EU Chamber of Commerce in China Vice President Bettina Schoen-Behanzin, who is currently in Shanghai, said the city’s draconian lockdown is the "nail-in-the-coffin" for its image as an international commercial hub.
Schoen-Behanzin, “Business Confidence Fading in Shanghai” (Bloomberg video):
[T]here is you know in Shanghai here a strong sense of uncertainty. And this is for sure. Few will buy food supplies. It's just you know it's incredible that in a city like Shanghai people don't have enough fresh food and water at home.
Then we have these endless lockdowns in certain districts in Shanghai. It started already more than a months ago. So people are locked [in for] four or five weeks and there's no end in sight. And there is this big big fear of the getting transported to one of just many quarantine centers. They have actually repurposed an exhibition center where you have 20, 40 thousand beds. There are no showers. So hygienic conditions are horrible and it is advised to bring disposable underwear. So we definitely don't want to end up in such a center.
. . . [B]usiness confidence is clearly fading because depending on how long this lockdown will last it will have a huge impact on businesses here. So revenues will definitely go down and Shanghai [has] definitely us[ed] its attractiveness. So foreign staff you know they want to leave especially if they have families here as fast as possible. So it's very difficult to attract and retain talents here and headquarters are very very concerned. And I think if they now think about future investments in Asia, Shanghai is definitely not on the top of the list.
Growing anger could become a political disaster for President Xi
As Shanghai households run out of the basic essentials, like food, drinking water, and medicines, the outbreak - and the dystopian operation that the Chinese government is deploying to contain it - threaten to become “one of the biggest challenges to Xi” since he ascended to power in 2012 “ just months before he’s expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term at a twice-a-decade party congress,” Bloomberg said.
Popular China politics YouTuber Laowhy86 last week posted a video (below) with disturbing social media video clips showing young children being forcibly removed from their parents and put into quarantine for weeks. Unverified reports say some have even died.
Bloomberg gave a similarly chilling account of the Covid-Zero madness that has gripped Shanghai:
Pets beaten to death. Parents forced to separate from their children. Elderly folks unable to access medical care. Locked-up residents chanting “we want to eat” and “we want freedom.”
The city’s residents are freely expressing harsh criticisms of the government’s Covid-zero policy to anyone who will listen. They are becoming increasingly fed up with the situation, some even saying they intend to resist authorities if necessary.
Bloomberg:
“In this country it’s not the virus that scares us, but the chaotic anti-Covid measures that have caused risks to the well-being of the elderly, the children and companion animals,” said Lily Chen, who lives in Shanghai with her three cats. “I now realize we can only rely on ourselves -- not the government -- to protect our own families.”
Regina Li, said she had long supported the government and even defended the strict measures at the start of the lockdown, which began in parts of the city on March 28 before spreading to cover nearly everywhere. But the widespread difficulties of vulnerable people started to change her mind, and she broke down in tears after seeing social-media posts of a virus-control worker beating a dog to death.
“I feel I no longer know the city,” Li said. “The only thing in my mind is to protect my dogs. Anyone who wants to kill them, come kill me first.”
They said it best.
[W]hat's happening is the longer the lockdown goes on - the longer you try to keep twenty-five million people locked up in their homes - the more pressure is put on the logistics, the food, the medical supplies and people's patience.
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See you Monday.