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The pressure to get the skyrocketing infection numbers under control is apparently weighing heavily on Shanghai’s authorities. The city has extended the lockdown until further notice. A Shanghai resident tells us how the citizens feel about it: On the one hand, chaos reigns, as contradictory rules have been imposed on many areas of daily life, the 28-year-old woman tells China.Table. On the other hand, many believe that there is no alternative to the zero-covid strategy. The main concern is now more about other Chinese cities. If prosperous, efficient Shanghai fails to contain the virus, other cities will be defenseless against it.
The images from Bucha are currently stirring up European politics. They have resulted in the expulsion of Russian diplomats and calls for a coal import ban. China, however, as so often, sees the world differently. China’s state-controlled media ignore reports about these atrocities – or they follow the Russian narrative. This contradicts the guise of its neutrality between Ukraine and Russia, analyzes David Demes.
Fabian Peltsch
Feature
‘We all have to make sacrifices now’: first-hand report from Shanghai
I live in the Puxi district. There has already been one positive case in my building. I’ve been at home for almost a week straight now. It’s boring, I’d like to get out again, go to work or do something. But these are luxury problems when you think of all the people who have been infected and are now in special isolation centers. Shanghai’s streets are completely deserted for the first time ever. Media are showing drone videos of famous places like the Bund and Nanjing East Road. A frightening scenery.
However, I was not surprised that the government imposed a lockdown on Shanghai because the virus continued to spread. The fact that it has now been extended indefinitely feels like a gradual process to me. We all still have the images of Wuhan in our minds, so we know what kind of control measures are coming.
One of the biggest problems in our daily lives is that we now have to rely completely on neighborhood committees. These people are mostly older and never had to coordinate so many tasks at once. They have to manage the buildings and decide, for example, what to do about food deliveries and how to deal with infected people. Everyone has their own way of handling things, which means there are always unexpected and chaotic situations. They have not received any training for extreme situations like soldiers in the People’s Liberation Army.
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