China is once again the epicenter of attention as the last nation pushing “Zero COVID”. This is increasingly coming at a cost for the CCP, and it effects the credibility of the regime. I am not the only one on this site sounding the alarm, as Irontortoise concurs that China is about to be for a world of hurt.
The situation is increasingly getting out of hand in China, but the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is doubling down, as evidenced by this story a couple of days ago:
The beatings will continue until morale case counts improve.
Chinese President Xi Jinping says his government will stick to its zero-tolerance approach to Covid even as public anger simmers in Shanghai and economic costs mount.
“Prevention and control work cannot be relaxed,” Xi said during a trip to the island province of Hainan, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Wednesday, the same day the financial hub saw a record 27,719 new cases.
Officials implementing Covid Zero need to adhere to the principle of “people first and life first,” Xi said. “Persistence is victory,” he added.
Citizens reporting from Shanghai obviously have to self censor, as these twitter threads from the same person prominently show:
FULL THREAD
FULL THREAD
Let’s see what the regime in China doesn’t want you to see, below the fold.
Shanghai: A City On The Edge
There are very rare public protests against the CCP in Shanghai due to evictions from their homes due to the need for isolation wards to fight COVID-19.
The police and army have but no choice but to push back and crack down as the main party doubles down.
The FURY of the Citizens Isn’t Abating During Lockdown Restrictions
Residents at a housing complex in Shanghai clashed with health authorities on Thursday, after they tried to block a government-mandated requisition of buildings to house Covid-19 patients amid a coronavirus outbreak that has had the city on lockdown for weeks.
The rare protest, footage of which was livestreamed and later widely circulated on social media before it was scrubbed by censors, comes amid mounting public frustration over the lockdown in Shanghai, China’s financial center. The city of 26 million is at the center of China’s worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic, in a major test of the country’s “dynamic zero-Covid” strategy.
It is like the scenes out of a dystopian movie, and I doubt this one will have a hero or a good ending for the citizens.
Oh, and the elderly are starting to die, regardless of what the ruling propaganda mouthpieces are claiming about “Zero Deaths” in Shanghai.
The BBC has spoken to a hospital manager and had access to correspondence sent to relatives of patients who've died during the Omicron outbreak that is sweeping through China's biggest city.
We've also had access to official documents that suggest at least 27 patients from a single hospital, who weren't vaccinated, have died from what it called "underlying health problems".
Shanghai is enforcing a mammoth lockdown as authorities try to contain a new wave of the virus. Most of the city's almost 25 million population have been ordered to stay inside for three weeks.
The BBC has previously reported evidence that authorities in Shanghai are struggling to deal with the outbreak. We spoke to a nurse and a health worker at Donghai Elderly Care Hospital who, between them, described desperate attempts to help dozens of elderly patients, some of whom have died.
I am spiritual (not a fan of organized religion), and I have been praying for Shanghai for a couple of weeks now. There’s not much else we can really do to help this situation except do honest reporting on what China doesn’t want you to know.
Elsewhere in China
All eyes were on Hong Kong last month, and now they are on Shanghai this month. What large megalopolis will be the next victim of a ruthless lockdown in May?
Lockdowns Are Spreading in China Along With BA.2
Anti-virus controls that have shut down some of China’s biggest cities and fueled public irritation are spreading as infections rise, hurting a weak economy and prompting warnings of possible global shockwaves.
Shanghai is easing rules that confined most of its 25 million people to their homes after complaints they had trouble getting food. But most of its businesses still are closed. Access to Guangzhou, an industrial center of 19 million people near Hong Kong, was suspended this week. Other cities are cutting off access or closing factories and schools.
Spring planting by Chinese farmers who feed 1.4 billion people might be disrupted, Nomura economists warned Thursday. That could boost demand for imported wheat and other food, pushing up already high global prices.
The closures are an embarrassment to the ruling Communist Party and a setback for official efforts to shore up slumping growth in the world’s second-largest economy. They come during a sensitive year when President Xi Jinping is expected to try to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as leader.
The most recent large city to be affected is Xi’an, which is in the northwest corner of China.
The unrest is spreading beyond Hong Kong and Shanghai as well. This is an extremely fragile time for the ruling regime — if they can get past this the average citizen will once again have no choice but to obey and no desire to protest.
Growing Defiance of COVID Curbs in China Brings a New Wave of Arrests
Sun Jian, a 37-year-old master's degree student in the Chinese city of Yantai, for months staged a solo campaign against his university's COVID-19 prevention measures, including blistering criticism on social media.
The last straw for authorities came on March 27, when Sun walked around his campus carrying a placard that read "lift the lockdown on Ludong".
Police detained him and on April 1 Ludong University expelled him, according to a letter from the university seen by Reuters.
University officials did not respond to a request for comment.
The Chinese public have been largely supportive of the zero-COVID policy that kept the coronavirus at bay for the two years after it emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 and spread rapidly around the world.
But the support seems to be wearing thin as the highly contagious Omicron variant emerges in China, triggering curbs that have brought food shortages, family separations, lost wages and economic pain.
Supply Chain Issues on the Chinese End: Get Ready for Inflation 2.0
The lockdowns and draconian rules have stood in the way of truck and other deliveries in locked down cities in China.
Inflation as a result of manufacturing shortages has been an ongoing problem. If China cannot beat back this virus, expect these supply chain holdups to cause another burst of inflation, and at a terrible time for Biden and the spoiled American consumers.
The lockdown of Shanghai, along with Hong Kong one of the financial capitals of China, is enough by itself to tip the scales on what is a booming economy right now worldwide.
The ongoing lockdown in Shanghai could disrupt the country's economy, business leaders warned on Friday, as the central government doubled down on China's "zero-COVID" strategy.
One of Huawei's top executives warned about clogged supply chains. "If Shanghai continues being unable to resume work and production, from May, all tech and industrial players involving the Shanghai supply chain will completely shut down, especially the auto industry!" Richard Yu, head of Huawei's consumer and auto segment, said on the social media platform WeChat.
COVID controls have shut down some of China's largest cities, fueling public irritation, threatening an already weakened economy and prompting warnings of possible global shockwaves.
Shanghai has been at the epicenter of China's struggle to contain its outbreak, as authorities recently sought to loosen some restrictions to quell residents' dissatisfaction. But health officials warned this week that despite a slight lowering in infections, Shanghai didn't have the virus under control.
Even Chinese tech executives are speaking out in a limited way, saying that by May the whole Chinese production machine could be halted by May if COVID still runs rampant in China.
Not good!
Conclusion
The Chinese ruling regime is taking a HUGE risk by doubling down on “Zero COVID”. Desperation makes what was once unthinkable possible, and in a regime like China that is doubly so.
Across China, cities are locking down their residents, supply lines are rupturing, and officials are scrambling to secure the movement of basic goods – as its largest ever recorded outbreak of Covid-19 threatens to spiral into a national crisis of the government’s own making.
At least 44 Chinese cities are under either a full or partial lockdown as authorities persist in trying to curb the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, according to a report from investment bank Nomura and CNN’s own reporting as of Thursday.
In Shanghai, the epicenter of the country’s latest outbreak, scenes once unimaginable for the hyper-modern financial capital have become part of the daily struggle for 25 million people. There, residents forbidden to leave the confines of their apartments or housing blocks for weeks have been desperate for food and freedom – some seen in social media clips screaming out of their windows in frustration or clashing with hazmat-clad workers. Even after the release of a tentative plan Monday for the partial relaxation of measures, there appears to be no end in sight.
I refer to the first series of tweets in the introduction once again. The contract between the CCP and the people was they get to control every thought in exchange for full bellies and prosperity. That is increasingly becoming frayed, which is why this is such a powder keg situation right now. All it takes in one spark, and the world’s most populous nation and one of the leading economies can collapse just like in any other revolution. While the CCP undoubtedly has the upper hand now, we’ve seen the removal of autocrats on sudden notice too many times to know for sure if the regime is going to be secure.
TRIGGER WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEOS
Just know that the consequences in China shall be catastrophic if it does indeed happen. From my Thursday COVID Roundup:
There are reports of animals being put to death. There are the suicides. There are unprecedented mobs and riots looking for food. These are not covered in the western media or are briefly mentioned, likely in fear of the CCP banning them from reporting or doing business. Just know that Shanghai is a powder keg right now, and even the CCP is beginning to realize it.
Now, imagine that across the nation of China. Also, imagine the repercussions of China shutting down on the world economy on the heels of Russia being isolated and Ukraine being destroyed. We’d be in for a depression of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression, and we’d be fucked.
So pray for the citizens of China just as if you would pray for Ukraine.