Shanghai’s Dystopian Covid Lockdown

After a spike in cases in several Chinese cities, most notably beginning in Shanghai in March, the government is clamping down in an attempt to control the spread as a part of their “zero covid policy.” When watching the events of the Shanghai lockdown recapped on the news, one can’t help but think that they’ve heard this happen before in a dystopian movie.

China’s approach to controlling Covid is one of the strictest in the world, as part of their zero-Covid policy. This policy includes tight restrictions on travel in and out of the country, regular community testing, the closing of all non-essential businesses and schools, and heavily limited vehicle movement. These extreme measures are having severe consequences on all aspects of life in China. 

The measures taken by the government have effectively shut down Shanghai, China’s financial capital, with its economy grinding to a halt. Currently the Chinese stock market is also spiraling. All 26 million residents of Shanghai have been forced to remain in their homes, only being allowed to leave to receive their regular Covid tests. For weeks people in Shanghai have been forced to live in isolation, which has created controversy and outrage regarding its humaneness. 

If someone were to test positive, they would be mandated to go to a government run mass quarantine facility, sometimes taken there by force. Some accounts recall neighbors who refused to go to the center being taken from their homes in the middle of the night. Images on social media depict the unsanitary conditions, with inadequate food and overflowing garbage. In many facilities fluorescent lights are left on constantly which also makes sleep difficult. 

This is especially hard on the elderly, who like everyone else are largely left to fend for themselves once placed in the center. One woman describes the struggle of her 90 year old grandmother who struggles to walk but is also provided with no care. ”Luckily there’s a warm hearted woman in the quarantine center. She accompanies my grandma to the toilet and assists her with eating,” she said. “If my grandma was alone, she wouldn’t be able to survive at all.” She is afraid that her grandfather will also be forced to go to the quarantine center. “We argued with a community official — that if you send him to a quarantine center, you are actually forcing him to die.” 

Many people who are not positive with Covid and placed into mass facilities are forced to lock down within their homes or apartment buildings. This has created situations of food and medical supply shortages as people are effectively shut off from the outside world. Desperate people scream from their apartment windows that they are starving, while drones blare messages saying, “Please comply with Covid restrictions. Control your soul’s desire for freedom.” 

Scenes such as this have circulated on the internet and have caused public outrage in China, a kind that is very rare considering the vast censorship of Chinese media. Viral videos are also causing people to openly question the scientific validity of the zero-covid policy and the infringement on privacy and personal freedoms as officials have been seen breaking into homes. “The apartments are our private property, which we bought with millions or tens of millions of yuan,” said a Shanghai resident on China’s social media platform Weibo. “Why should we allow you in? This is no different than robbery!” Weijan Shan, a chair of one of Asia’s largest private equity firms, told brokers in a meeting that he believes “popular discontent in China is at its highest point in 30 years.”

“For the past two years, the party leadership and government have spun the narrative that China has handled the pandemic much better than the decadent West,” Joerg Wuttke, president of the E.U. said. “Now this narrative is blowing up in their faces.”