House Arrest: The Draconian Lockdowns of Shanghai20/05/2022
Mitchell Blatt
My friend Lu and I were both confined to our apartments to be quarantined on 18 March 2022. I had been infected with coronavirus. Lu hadn’t. I was allowed to leave my apartment in Cheonan, South Korea, after seven days. But even now, more than two months later, Lu still hasn’t been allowed out of his home in the Pudong district of Shanghai.Lu—who has requested to remain pseudonymous—is just one of the more than 20 million people in Shanghai and reportedly more than 50 million nationwide to be imprisoned in their own homes as China faces its largest reported coronavirus outbreak in two years.
The authorities have employed brutal tactics to enforce the quarantine. Both Chinese and foreign residents in quarantined cities have faced difficulties accessing food. Some—like the Shanghai nurse who suffered a severe asthma attack—have died after being denied medical care. Parents unfortunate enough to test positive for Covid-19 have been taken by white-suited men and shuttled off to isolation facilities—warehouses with beds—where they have had to spend weeks separated from their children. Elderly patients at understaffed long-term care facilities have been denied timely meals. One resident of a nursing home was even stuffed inside a body bag and taken to a morgue while still alive.
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China’s manufacturing and service economies have suffered major losses. Factory shutdowns have also hurt global manufacturers who trade with China. Meanwhile, Chinese blue-collar workers—who cannot work from home—have received no income for at least a month.
Even if China were to end its zero Covid policy tomorrow, the consequences would still be felt for years to come. Many Chinese citizens have begun to question the government openly in ways that most of them have never done before. Foreign companies will think twice before opening new offices and factories that could be arbitrarily shut down indefinitely. Foreign workers will shy away from jobs in China. Many foreigners have already left or are planning to leave.
The people locked up in Shanghai are not just concerned about their immediate survival. Most residents now have access to food and many white-collar workers can work from home. But, among the Chinese residents I have spoken to, there is an overwhelming feeling of helplessness and distress at being subjected to an authoritarian government willing to restrict people’s lives and freedoms on a political whim.
And, make no mistake, this is about politics, not about preventing the spread of coronavirus. Many of the measures being taken—such as the spraying of empty streets with lime—are ludicrously unscientific.
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Source:
https://areomagazine.com/2022/05/20/house-arrest-the-draconian-lockdowns-of-shanghai/
