Lockdown Anger in Shanghai Won’t Fade Anytime Soon
The accumulation of misery among the city’s thriving middle class is undermining faith in a government that's spent decades improving Chinese living standards.
Lockdown food delivery in Shanghai.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
Starvation hasn't been a problem in China for decades. But in recent weeks, Shanghai has been feeling hunger pangs. The problem is China's strict “Covid zero” protocols confining residents to their homes. Unable to shop for food, the city of 25 million must now rely on the government to arrange it.
So far, that hasn't gone well. On social media, cries for food and medicine are common; less common, but no less real, are poignant videos of citizens demanding food and relief. Last week, a recorded phone call went viral in which a man calls the police to report he hasn't eaten in days. If he breaks lockdown, he asks, will he be arrested and fed a prison meal? The police officer answers that he'll be sent home because “even we don't know where to buy food outside.”