As China Imposes More Covid Lockdowns, ‘Everyone Is Scared’each place, most of the shelves had been stripped bare, except for hot peppers and fruit, he said.
By Vivian Wang, Sept. 5, 2022, NY Times
In the hours before the southern Chinese city of Chengdu entered a coronavirus lockdown, Matthew Chen visited four vegetable markets in an attempt to stock up on fresh food. But seemingly the entire city had the same idea, and by the time he got to
Mr. Chen, a white-collar worker in his 30s, managed to scavenge enough cherry tomatoes, meat and greens for about one day, and since then has been ordering grocery deliveries to tide him through the lockdown, which began on Friday. But he worries aboutwhether that supply will remain stable, and how much longer he will have to rely on it.
“The longer a lockdown goes, the more problems emerge, and the harder it is to tolerate it,” he said, noting that the Chengdu government had not given a timeline for reopening.day — collapsed, leaving residents waiting in line for hours.
Problems have already appeared. Some residents have complained on social media of long delays in food deliveries. Over the weekend, Chengdu’s Covid testing system — which has been tasked with swabbing all of the city’s 21 million residents every
Similar scenes of uncertainty and anxiety are playing out across China, as the country battles a new wave of coronavirus outbreaks, with cases recorded over the past week in nearly every province. The authorities have responded with the lockdowns andmass testing that have come to define the country’s “zero Covid” policy.
The number of infections remains relatively small, with about 1,500 new cases on Sunday. Yet some 60 million people across China are facing partial or full lockdowns, according to Chinese media, from Chengdu to the southern economic powerhouse ofShenzhen to the oil-producing city of Daqing near Russia.
The challenges in enforcing such extensive controls are daunting, perhaps more so now than at any other point in the pandemic. Nearly three years of on-and-off lockdowns have lashed the economy, sending unemployment soaring, especially among youngpeople. The country is increasingly isolated, as the rest of the world largely abandons Covid restrictions. New subvariants are ever more transmissible. And the seemingly endless restrictions leave more ordinary Chinese people wearier by the day.
But the stakes have also reached new heights. The ruling Communist Party is scheduled to hold an important congress on Oct. 16, where China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to claim a third term. Mr. Xi has given his personal imprimatur to “zeroCovid,” casting it as proof of the party’s strength — and by extension, his own leadership. Any local official seen as weakening that claim could face serious consequences.
The overriding imperative of wiping out infections was evident in the speed with which cities moved to shut down recently, despite the huge economic and social toll.end afterward.
Chengdu on Sunday announced that it would continue the stay-at-home orders and daily universal testing that began on Friday for at least three more days, as the situation remained “serious and complicated.” It did not say whether the lockdown would
The restrictions are certain to strain Chengdu’s economy. Even before the lockdown, the city had banned large-scale gatherings, leading to the cancellation of an international auto show that last year generated nearly $1 billion in sales.major clusters were linked to swimming pools where people had gone to cool off, according to state media.
The shutdown also follows a recent drought, record-breaking heat and power outages last month that had led to factory closures across Sichuan Province, where Chengdu is the capital. The heat may in fact have exacerbated the virus’s spread: Several
To many, the panic buying in Chengdu underscored how deeply previous lockdowns — especially the grueling two-month shutdown of Shanghai earlier this year — had shaken people. Though Chengdu officials have tried to reassure residents that foodsupplies are ample, Shanghai had offered similar assurances, only to see widespread reported shortages of food and medicine.
Chengdu officials themselves have already tested residents’ trust, after the authorities last week ordered a man detained for 15 days, accusing him of spreading false rumors on social media about a looming lockdown. Two days later, when the city didactually lock down, social media erupted with support for the man and anger at the government.
“Everyone is scared, scared that the situation will become like Shanghai,” said Mr. Chen, the office worker, who had traveled to Chengdu on business before becoming trapped there by the restrictions.ordered most of the city’s 18 million residents to stay at home, postponed the start of the school year and shuttered most public transit, after detecting about 400 cases in the past week.
Still, he saw little alternative but to bear with the situation. “Personally, I’m extremely fed up with and not supportive of these policies. But there’s nothing I can do,” he said. “I can only wait.”
The drive for zero cases at all costs has also led to widespread shutdowns in Shenzhen, one of China’s most economically vital metropolises, home to major tech companies, including Tencent and Huawei. There, the local authorities over the weekend
Lockdowns are being extended in parts of Hainan Province and in the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, major vacation destinations where flare-ups of infections last month led to thousands of tourists being trapped in their hotels, sometimes at their ownexpense. Over the weekend, at least 33 cities were under some form of restrictions, according to Caixin, a Chinese news outlet.
As the restrictions have spread across the country, so has public discontent. In Chengdu, the testing failures prompted a flurry of outrage at the company responsible, with online commenters noting that certain sectors focused on Covid control wereprofiting while regular people were suffering economically. Testing companies have reported soaring revenue in public filings.
In Daqing, a city of nearly 3 million people in China’s northeast that has been locked down for about two weeks, local officials promised to investigate widely shared social media reports of a pregnant woman who miscarried after being denied medicalcare because of Covid restrictions.
Even the government appears to have tacitly acknowledged that people’s patience is fraying. In many of the cities recently sealed off, officials have gone to great lengths not to call the measures a lockdown. In Shenzhen, local officials describedthe weekend requirements only as universal testing — then added that residents should immediately return home afterward. The Chengdu announcement said residents would “in principle stay at home.”
On the social media platform Weibo, the hashtag “Chengdu lockdown” has been censored.go back to school and is missing the start of her senior year.
Still, no matter what new terms officials use, this experience feels familiar to Freya Yang, a college student from Chengdu. She spent the spring almost entirely unable to leave her campus in Beijing. Now, after going home for the summer, she can’t
“Everyone only knows what they’re going through, which is that you can’t go outside,” Ms. Yang said. “These word games, people don’t really care about them.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/world/asia/china-covid-lockdowns.html
As China Imposes More Covid Lockdowns, ‘Everyone Is Scared’each place, most of the shelves had been stripped bare, except for hot peppers and fruit, he said.
By Vivian Wang, Sept. 5, 2022, NY Times
In the hours before the southern Chinese city of Chengdu entered a coronavirus lockdown, Matthew Chen visited four vegetable markets in an attempt to stock up on fresh food. But seemingly the entire city had the same idea, and by the time he got to
Mr. Chen, a white-collar worker in his 30s, managed to scavenge enough cherry tomatoes, meat and greens for about one day, and since then has been ordering grocery deliveries to tide him through the lockdown, which began on Friday. But he worries aboutwhether that supply will remain stable, and how much longer he will have to rely on it.
“The longer a lockdown goes, the more problems emerge, and the harder it is to tolerate it,” he said, noting that the Chengdu government had not given a timeline for reopening.day — collapsed, leaving residents waiting in line for hours.
Problems have already appeared. Some residents have complained on social media of long delays in food deliveries. Over the weekend, Chengdu’s Covid testing system — which has been tasked with swabbing all of the city’s 21 million residents every
Similar scenes of uncertainty and anxiety are playing out across China, as the country battles a new wave of coronavirus outbreaks, with cases recorded over the past week in nearly every province. The authorities have responded with the lockdowns andmass testing that have come to define the country’s “zero Covid” policy.
The number of infections remains relatively small, with about 1,500 new cases on Sunday. Yet some 60 million people across China are facing partial or full lockdowns, according to Chinese media, from Chengdu to the southern economic powerhouse ofShenzhen to the oil-producing city of Daqing near Russia.
The challenges in enforcing such extensive controls are daunting, perhaps more so now than at any other point in the pandemic. Nearly three years of on-and-off lockdowns have lashed the economy, sending unemployment soaring, especially among youngpeople. The country is increasingly isolated, as the rest of the world largely abandons Covid restrictions. New subvariants are ever more transmissible. And the seemingly endless restrictions leave more ordinary Chinese people wearier by the day.
But the stakes have also reached new heights. The ruling Communist Party is scheduled to hold an important congress on Oct. 16, where China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to claim a third term. Mr. Xi has given his personal imprimatur to “zeroCovid,” casting it as proof of the party’s strength — and by extension, his own leadership. Any local official seen as weakening that claim could face serious consequences.
The overriding imperative of wiping out infections was evident in the speed with which cities moved to shut down recently, despite the huge economic and social toll.end afterward.
Chengdu on Sunday announced that it would continue the stay-at-home orders and daily universal testing that began on Friday for at least three more days, as the situation remained “serious and complicated.” It did not say whether the lockdown would
The restrictions are certain to strain Chengdu’s economy. Even before the lockdown, the city had banned large-scale gatherings, leading to the cancellation of an international auto show that last year generated nearly $1 billion in sales.major clusters were linked to swimming pools where people had gone to cool off, according to state media.
The shutdown also follows a recent drought, record-breaking heat and power outages last month that had led to factory closures across Sichuan Province, where Chengdu is the capital. The heat may in fact have exacerbated the virus’s spread: Several
To many, the panic buying in Chengdu underscored how deeply previous lockdowns — especially the grueling two-month shutdown of Shanghai earlier this year — had shaken people. Though Chengdu officials have tried to reassure residents that foodsupplies are ample, Shanghai had offered similar assurances, only to see widespread reported shortages of food and medicine.
Chengdu officials themselves have already tested residents’ trust, after the authorities last week ordered a man detained for 15 days, accusing him of spreading false rumors on social media about a looming lockdown. Two days later, when the city didactually lock down, social media erupted with support for the man and anger at the government.
“Everyone is scared, scared that the situation will become like Shanghai,” said Mr. Chen, the office worker, who had traveled to Chengdu on business before becoming trapped there by the restrictions.ordered most of the city’s 18 million residents to stay at home, postponed the start of the school year and shuttered most public transit, after detecting about 400 cases in the past week.
Still, he saw little alternative but to bear with the situation. “Personally, I’m extremely fed up with and not supportive of these policies. But there’s nothing I can do,” he said. “I can only wait.”
The drive for zero cases at all costs has also led to widespread shutdowns in Shenzhen, one of China’s most economically vital metropolises, home to major tech companies, including Tencent and Huawei. There, the local authorities over the weekend
Lockdowns are being extended in parts of Hainan Province and in the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, major vacation destinations where flare-ups of infections last month led to thousands of tourists being trapped in their hotels, sometimes at their ownexpense. Over the weekend, at least 33 cities were under some form of restrictions, according to Caixin, a Chinese news outlet.
As the restrictions have spread across the country, so has public discontent. In Chengdu, the testing failures prompted a flurry of outrage at the company responsible, with online commenters noting that certain sectors focused on Covid control wereprofiting while regular people were suffering economically. Testing companies have reported soaring revenue in public filings.
In Daqing, a city of nearly 3 million people in China’s northeast that has been locked down for about two weeks, local officials promised to investigate widely shared social media reports of a pregnant woman who miscarried after being denied medicalcare because of Covid restrictions.
Even the government appears to have tacitly acknowledged that people’s patience is fraying. In many of the cities recently sealed off, officials have gone to great lengths not to call the measures a lockdown. In Shenzhen, local officials describedthe weekend requirements only as universal testing — then added that residents should immediately return home afterward. The Chengdu announcement said residents would “in principle stay at home.”
On the social media platform Weibo, the hashtag “Chengdu lockdown” has been censored.go back to school and is missing the start of her senior year.
Still, no matter what new terms officials use, this experience feels familiar to Freya Yang, a college student from Chengdu. She spent the spring almost entirely unable to leave her campus in Beijing. Now, after going home for the summer, she can’t
“Everyone only knows what they’re going through, which is that you can’t go outside,” Ms. Yang said. “These word games, people don’t really care about them.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/world/asia/china-covid-lockdowns.html
On Tuesday, September 6, 2022 at 4:12:14 AM UTC, David P. wrote:each place, most of the shelves had been stripped bare, except for hot peppers and fruit, he said.
As China Imposes More Covid Lockdowns, ‘Everyone Is Scared’
By Vivian Wang, Sept. 5, 2022, NY Times
In the hours before the southern Chinese city of Chengdu entered a coronavirus lockdown, Matthew Chen visited four vegetable markets in an attempt to stock up on fresh food. But seemingly the entire city had the same idea, and by the time he got to
about whether that supply will remain stable, and how much longer he will have to rely on it.Mr. Chen, a white-collar worker in his 30s, managed to scavenge enough cherry tomatoes, meat and greens for about one day, and since then has been ordering grocery deliveries to tide him through the lockdown, which began on Friday. But he worries
every day — collapsed, leaving residents waiting in line for hours.“The longer a lockdown goes, the more problems emerge, and the harder it is to tolerate it,” he said, noting that the Chengdu government had not given a timeline for reopening.
Problems have already appeared. Some residents have complained on social media of long delays in food deliveries. Over the weekend, Chengdu’s Covid testing system — which has been tasked with swabbing all of the city’s 21 million residents
mass testing that have come to define the country’s “zero Covid” policy.Similar scenes of uncertainty and anxiety are playing out across China, as the country battles a new wave of coronavirus outbreaks, with cases recorded over the past week in nearly every province. The authorities have responded with the lockdowns and
Shenzhen to the oil-producing city of Daqing near Russia.The number of infections remains relatively small, with about 1,500 new cases on Sunday. Yet some 60 million people across China are facing partial or full lockdowns, according to Chinese media, from Chengdu to the southern economic powerhouse of
people. The country is increasingly isolated, as the rest of the world largely abandons Covid restrictions. New subvariants are ever more transmissible. And the seemingly endless restrictions leave more ordinary Chinese people wearier by the day.The challenges in enforcing such extensive controls are daunting, perhaps more so now than at any other point in the pandemic. Nearly three years of on-and-off lockdowns have lashed the economy, sending unemployment soaring, especially among young
Covid,” casting it as proof of the party’s strength — and by extension, his own leadership. Any local official seen as weakening that claim could face serious consequences.But the stakes have also reached new heights. The ruling Communist Party is scheduled to hold an important congress on Oct. 16, where China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to claim a third term. Mr. Xi has given his personal imprimatur to “zero
would end afterward.The overriding imperative of wiping out infections was evident in the speed with which cities moved to shut down recently, despite the huge economic and social toll.
Chengdu on Sunday announced that it would continue the stay-at-home orders and daily universal testing that began on Friday for at least three more days, as the situation remained “serious and complicated.” It did not say whether the lockdown
major clusters were linked to swimming pools where people had gone to cool off, according to state media.The restrictions are certain to strain Chengdu’s economy. Even before the lockdown, the city had banned large-scale gatherings, leading to the cancellation of an international auto show that last year generated nearly $1 billion in sales.
The shutdown also follows a recent drought, record-breaking heat and power outages last month that had led to factory closures across Sichuan Province, where Chengdu is the capital. The heat may in fact have exacerbated the virus’s spread: Several
supplies are ample, Shanghai had offered similar assurances, only to see widespread reported shortages of food and medicine.To many, the panic buying in Chengdu underscored how deeply previous lockdowns — especially the grueling two-month shutdown of Shanghai earlier this year — had shaken people. Though Chengdu officials have tried to reassure residents that food
did actually lock down, social media erupted with support for the man and anger at the government.Chengdu officials themselves have already tested residents’ trust, after the authorities last week ordered a man detained for 15 days, accusing him of spreading false rumors on social media about a looming lockdown. Two days later, when the city
ordered most of the city’s 18 million residents to stay at home, postponed the start of the school year and shuttered most public transit, after detecting about 400 cases in the past week.“Everyone is scared, scared that the situation will become like Shanghai,” said Mr. Chen, the office worker, who had traveled to Chengdu on business before becoming trapped there by the restrictions.
Still, he saw little alternative but to bear with the situation. “Personally, I’m extremely fed up with and not supportive of these policies. But there’s nothing I can do,” he said. “I can only wait.”
The drive for zero cases at all costs has also led to widespread shutdowns in Shenzhen, one of China’s most economically vital metropolises, home to major tech companies, including Tencent and Huawei. There, the local authorities over the weekend
expense. Over the weekend, at least 33 cities were under some form of restrictions, according to Caixin, a Chinese news outlet.Lockdowns are being extended in parts of Hainan Province and in the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, major vacation destinations where flare-ups of infections last month led to thousands of tourists being trapped in their hotels, sometimes at their own
profiting while regular people were suffering economically. Testing companies have reported soaring revenue in public filings.As the restrictions have spread across the country, so has public discontent. In Chengdu, the testing failures prompted a flurry of outrage at the company responsible, with online commenters noting that certain sectors focused on Covid control were
medical care because of Covid restrictions.In Daqing, a city of nearly 3 million people in China’s northeast that has been locked down for about two weeks, local officials promised to investigate widely shared social media reports of a pregnant woman who miscarried after being denied
the weekend requirements only as universal testing — then added that residents should immediately return home afterward. The Chengdu announcement said residents would “in principle stay at home.”Even the government appears to have tacitly acknowledged that people’s patience is fraying. In many of the cities recently sealed off, officials have gone to great lengths not to call the measures a lockdown. In Shenzhen, local officials described
go back to school and is missing the start of her senior year.On the social media platform Weibo, the hashtag “Chengdu lockdown” has been censored.
Still, no matter what new terms officials use, this experience feels familiar to Freya Yang, a college student from Chengdu. She spent the spring almost entirely unable to leave her campus in Beijing. Now, after going home for the summer, she can’t
“Everyone only knows what they’re going through, which is that you can’t go outside,” Ms. Yang said. “These word games, people don’t really care about them.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/world/asia/china-covid-lockdowns.htmlChina is one of the best performers in the world when it comes to combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
In the US, coming 100 millions are infected. The total number of deaths have surpassed 1 million and still counting up.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
The coming winter will bring another new wave of infections around the world. It will again confirm that China's approach is correct.
As China Imposes More Covid Lockdowns, ‘Everyone Is Scared’each place, most of the shelves had been stripped bare, except for hot peppers and fruit, he said.
By Vivian Wang, Sept. 5, 2022, NY Times
In the hours before the southern Chinese city of Chengdu entered a coronavirus lockdown, Matthew Chen visited four vegetable markets in an attempt to stock up on fresh food. But seemingly the entire city had the same idea, and by the time he got to
Mr. Chen, a white-collar worker in his 30s, managed to scavenge enough cherry tomatoes, meat and greens for about one day, and since then has been ordering grocery deliveries to tide him through the lockdown, which began on Friday. But he worries aboutwhether that supply will remain stable, and how much longer he will have to rely on it.
“The longer a lockdown goes, the more problems emerge, and the harder it is to tolerate it,” he said, noting that the Chengdu government had not given a timeline for reopening.day — collapsed, leaving residents waiting in line for hours.
Problems have already appeared. Some residents have complained on social media of long delays in food deliveries. Over the weekend, Chengdu’s Covid testing system — which has been tasked with swabbing all of the city’s 21 million residents every
Similar scenes of uncertainty and anxiety are playing out across China, as the country battles a new wave of coronavirus outbreaks, with cases recorded over the past week in nearly every province. The authorities have responded with the lockdowns andmass testing that have come to define the country’s “zero Covid” policy.
The number of infections remains relatively small, with about 1,500 new cases on Sunday. Yet some 60 million people across China are facing partial or full lockdowns, according to Chinese media, from Chengdu to the southern economic powerhouse ofShenzhen to the oil-producing city of Daqing near Russia.
The challenges in enforcing such extensive controls are daunting, perhaps more so now than at any other point in the pandemic. Nearly three years of on-and-off lockdowns have lashed the economy, sending unemployment soaring, especially among youngpeople. The country is increasingly isolated, as the rest of the world largely abandons Covid restrictions. New subvariants are ever more transmissible. And the seemingly endless restrictions leave more ordinary Chinese people wearier by the day.
But the stakes have also reached new heights. The ruling Communist Party is scheduled to hold an important congress on Oct. 16, where China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to claim a third term. Mr. Xi has given his personal imprimatur to “zeroCovid,” casting it as proof of the party’s strength — and by extension, his own leadership. Any local official seen as weakening that claim could face serious consequences.
The overriding imperative of wiping out infections was evident in the speed with which cities moved to shut down recently, despite the huge economic and social toll.end afterward.
Chengdu on Sunday announced that it would continue the stay-at-home orders and daily universal testing that began on Friday for at least three more days, as the situation remained “serious and complicated.” It did not say whether the lockdown would
The restrictions are certain to strain Chengdu’s economy. Even before the lockdown, the city had banned large-scale gatherings, leading to the cancellation of an international auto show that last year generated nearly $1 billion in sales.major clusters were linked to swimming pools where people had gone to cool off, according to state media.
The shutdown also follows a recent drought, record-breaking heat and power outages last month that had led to factory closures across Sichuan Province, where Chengdu is the capital. The heat may in fact have exacerbated the virus’s spread: Several
To many, the panic buying in Chengdu underscored how deeply previous lockdowns — especially the grueling two-month shutdown of Shanghai earlier this year — had shaken people. Though Chengdu officials have tried to reassure residents that foodsupplies are ample, Shanghai had offered similar assurances, only to see widespread reported shortages of food and medicine.
Chengdu officials themselves have already tested residents’ trust, after the authorities last week ordered a man detained for 15 days, accusing him of spreading false rumors on social media about a looming lockdown. Two days later, when the city didactually lock down, social media erupted with support for the man and anger at the government.
“Everyone is scared, scared that the situation will become like Shanghai,” said Mr. Chen, the office worker, who had traveled to Chengdu on business before becoming trapped there by the restrictions.ordered most of the city’s 18 million residents to stay at home, postponed the start of the school year and shuttered most public transit, after detecting about 400 cases in the past week.
Still, he saw little alternative but to bear with the situation. “Personally, I’m extremely fed up with and not supportive of these policies. But there’s nothing I can do,” he said. “I can only wait.”
The drive for zero cases at all costs has also led to widespread shutdowns in Shenzhen, one of China’s most economically vital metropolises, home to major tech companies, including Tencent and Huawei. There, the local authorities over the weekend
Lockdowns are being extended in parts of Hainan Province and in the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, major vacation destinations where flare-ups of infections last month led to thousands of tourists being trapped in their hotels, sometimes at their ownexpense. Over the weekend, at least 33 cities were under some form of restrictions, according to Caixin, a Chinese news outlet.
As the restrictions have spread across the country, so has public discontent. In Chengdu, the testing failures prompted a flurry of outrage at the company responsible, with online commenters noting that certain sectors focused on Covid control wereprofiting while regular people were suffering economically. Testing companies have reported soaring revenue in public filings.
In Daqing, a city of nearly 3 million people in China’s northeast that has been locked down for about two weeks, local officials promised to investigate widely shared social media reports of a pregnant woman who miscarried after being denied medicalcare because of Covid restrictions.
Even the government appears to have tacitly acknowledged that people’s patience is fraying. In many of the cities recently sealed off, officials have gone to great lengths not to call the measures a lockdown. In Shenzhen, local officials describedthe weekend requirements only as universal testing — then added that residents should immediately return home afterward. The Chengdu announcement said residents would “in principle stay at home.”
On the social media platform Weibo, the hashtag “Chengdu lockdown” has been censored.go back to school and is missing the start of her senior year.
Still, no matter what new terms officials use, this experience feels familiar to Freya Yang, a college student from Chengdu. She spent the spring almost entirely unable to leave her campus in Beijing. Now, after going home for the summer, she can’t
“Everyone only knows what they’re going through, which is that you can’t go outside,” Ms. Yang said. “These word games, people don’t really care about them.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/world/asia/china-covid-lockdowns.html
On Tuesday, September 6, 2022 at 12:12:14 PM UTC+8, David P. wrote:each place, most of the shelves had been stripped bare, except for hot peppers and fruit, he said.
As China Imposes More Covid Lockdowns, ‘Everyone Is Scared’
By Vivian Wang, Sept. 5, 2022, NY Times
In the hours before the southern Chinese city of Chengdu entered a coronavirus lockdown, Matthew Chen visited four vegetable markets in an attempt to stock up on fresh food. But seemingly the entire city had the same idea, and by the time he got to
about whether that supply will remain stable, and how much longer he will have to rely on it.Mr. Chen, a white-collar worker in his 30s, managed to scavenge enough cherry tomatoes, meat and greens for about one day, and since then has been ordering grocery deliveries to tide him through the lockdown, which began on Friday. But he worries
every day — collapsed, leaving residents waiting in line for hours.“The longer a lockdown goes, the more problems emerge, and the harder it is to tolerate it,” he said, noting that the Chengdu government had not given a timeline for reopening.
Problems have already appeared. Some residents have complained on social media of long delays in food deliveries. Over the weekend, Chengdu’s Covid testing system — which has been tasked with swabbing all of the city’s 21 million residents
mass testing that have come to define the country’s “zero Covid” policy.Similar scenes of uncertainty and anxiety are playing out across China, as the country battles a new wave of coronavirus outbreaks, with cases recorded over the past week in nearly every province. The authorities have responded with the lockdowns and
Shenzhen to the oil-producing city of Daqing near Russia.The number of infections remains relatively small, with about 1,500 new cases on Sunday. Yet some 60 million people across China are facing partial or full lockdowns, according to Chinese media, from Chengdu to the southern economic powerhouse of
people. The country is increasingly isolated, as the rest of the world largely abandons Covid restrictions. New subvariants are ever more transmissible. And the seemingly endless restrictions leave more ordinary Chinese people wearier by the day.The challenges in enforcing such extensive controls are daunting, perhaps more so now than at any other point in the pandemic. Nearly three years of on-and-off lockdowns have lashed the economy, sending unemployment soaring, especially among young
Covid,” casting it as proof of the party’s strength — and by extension, his own leadership. Any local official seen as weakening that claim could face serious consequences.But the stakes have also reached new heights. The ruling Communist Party is scheduled to hold an important congress on Oct. 16, where China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to claim a third term. Mr. Xi has given his personal imprimatur to “zero
would end afterward.The overriding imperative of wiping out infections was evident in the speed with which cities moved to shut down recently, despite the huge economic and social toll.
Chengdu on Sunday announced that it would continue the stay-at-home orders and daily universal testing that began on Friday for at least three more days, as the situation remained “serious and complicated.” It did not say whether the lockdown
major clusters were linked to swimming pools where people had gone to cool off, according to state media.The restrictions are certain to strain Chengdu’s economy. Even before the lockdown, the city had banned large-scale gatherings, leading to the cancellation of an international auto show that last year generated nearly $1 billion in sales.
The shutdown also follows a recent drought, record-breaking heat and power outages last month that had led to factory closures across Sichuan Province, where Chengdu is the capital. The heat may in fact have exacerbated the virus’s spread: Several
supplies are ample, Shanghai had offered similar assurances, only to see widespread reported shortages of food and medicine.To many, the panic buying in Chengdu underscored how deeply previous lockdowns — especially the grueling two-month shutdown of Shanghai earlier this year — had shaken people. Though Chengdu officials have tried to reassure residents that food
did actually lock down, social media erupted with support for the man and anger at the government.Chengdu officials themselves have already tested residents’ trust, after the authorities last week ordered a man detained for 15 days, accusing him of spreading false rumors on social media about a looming lockdown. Two days later, when the city
ordered most of the city’s 18 million residents to stay at home, postponed the start of the school year and shuttered most public transit, after detecting about 400 cases in the past week.“Everyone is scared, scared that the situation will become like Shanghai,” said Mr. Chen, the office worker, who had traveled to Chengdu on business before becoming trapped there by the restrictions.
Still, he saw little alternative but to bear with the situation. “Personally, I’m extremely fed up with and not supportive of these policies. But there’s nothing I can do,” he said. “I can only wait.”
The drive for zero cases at all costs has also led to widespread shutdowns in Shenzhen, one of China’s most economically vital metropolises, home to major tech companies, including Tencent and Huawei. There, the local authorities over the weekend
expense. Over the weekend, at least 33 cities were under some form of restrictions, according to Caixin, a Chinese news outlet.Lockdowns are being extended in parts of Hainan Province and in the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, major vacation destinations where flare-ups of infections last month led to thousands of tourists being trapped in their hotels, sometimes at their own
profiting while regular people were suffering economically. Testing companies have reported soaring revenue in public filings.As the restrictions have spread across the country, so has public discontent. In Chengdu, the testing failures prompted a flurry of outrage at the company responsible, with online commenters noting that certain sectors focused on Covid control were
medical care because of Covid restrictions.In Daqing, a city of nearly 3 million people in China’s northeast that has been locked down for about two weeks, local officials promised to investigate widely shared social media reports of a pregnant woman who miscarried after being denied
the weekend requirements only as universal testing — then added that residents should immediately return home afterward. The Chengdu announcement said residents would “in principle stay at home.”Even the government appears to have tacitly acknowledged that people’s patience is fraying. In many of the cities recently sealed off, officials have gone to great lengths not to call the measures a lockdown. In Shenzhen, local officials described
go back to school and is missing the start of her senior year.On the social media platform Weibo, the hashtag “Chengdu lockdown” has been censored.
Still, no matter what new terms officials use, this experience feels familiar to Freya Yang, a college student from Chengdu. She spent the spring almost entirely unable to leave her campus in Beijing. Now, after going home for the summer, she can’t
“Everyone only knows what they’re going through, which is that you can’t go outside,” Ms. Yang said. “These word games, people don’t really care about them.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/world/asia/china-covid-lockdowns.htmlChina needs to find out the source of Covid from everyone in the city of Chengdu before it gets into serious spreading. China needs to check if the virus comes from enemy overseas or not.
On Tuesday, September 6, 2022 at 4:12:14 AM UTC, David P. wrote:each place, most of the shelves had been stripped bare, except for hot peppers and fruit, he said.
As China Imposes More Covid Lockdowns, ‘Everyone Is Scared’
By Vivian Wang, Sept. 5, 2022, NY Times
In the hours before the southern Chinese city of Chengdu entered a coronavirus lockdown, Matthew Chen visited four vegetable markets in an attempt to stock up on fresh food. But seemingly the entire city had the same idea, and by the time he got to
about whether that supply will remain stable, and how much longer he will have to rely on it.Mr. Chen, a white-collar worker in his 30s, managed to scavenge enough cherry tomatoes, meat and greens for about one day, and since then has been ordering grocery deliveries to tide him through the lockdown, which began on Friday. But he worries
every day — collapsed, leaving residents waiting in line for hours.“The longer a lockdown goes, the more problems emerge, and the harder it is to tolerate it,” he said, noting that the Chengdu government had not given a timeline for reopening.
Problems have already appeared. Some residents have complained on social media of long delays in food deliveries. Over the weekend, Chengdu’s Covid testing system — which has been tasked with swabbing all of the city’s 21 million residents
mass testing that have come to define the country’s “zero Covid” policy.Similar scenes of uncertainty and anxiety are playing out across China, as the country battles a new wave of coronavirus outbreaks, with cases recorded over the past week in nearly every province. The authorities have responded with the lockdowns and
Shenzhen to the oil-producing city of Daqing near Russia.The number of infections remains relatively small, with about 1,500 new cases on Sunday. Yet some 60 million people across China are facing partial or full lockdowns, according to Chinese media, from Chengdu to the southern economic powerhouse of
people. The country is increasingly isolated, as the rest of the world largely abandons Covid restrictions. New subvariants are ever more transmissible. And the seemingly endless restrictions leave more ordinary Chinese people wearier by the day.The challenges in enforcing such extensive controls are daunting, perhaps more so now than at any other point in the pandemic. Nearly three years of on-and-off lockdowns have lashed the economy, sending unemployment soaring, especially among young
Covid,” casting it as proof of the party’s strength — and by extension, his own leadership. Any local official seen as weakening that claim could face serious consequences.But the stakes have also reached new heights. The ruling Communist Party is scheduled to hold an important congress on Oct. 16, where China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to claim a third term. Mr. Xi has given his personal imprimatur to “zero
would end afterward.The overriding imperative of wiping out infections was evident in the speed with which cities moved to shut down recently, despite the huge economic and social toll.
Chengdu on Sunday announced that it would continue the stay-at-home orders and daily universal testing that began on Friday for at least three more days, as the situation remained “serious and complicated.” It did not say whether the lockdown
major clusters were linked to swimming pools where people had gone to cool off, according to state media.The restrictions are certain to strain Chengdu’s economy. Even before the lockdown, the city had banned large-scale gatherings, leading to the cancellation of an international auto show that last year generated nearly $1 billion in sales.
The shutdown also follows a recent drought, record-breaking heat and power outages last month that had led to factory closures across Sichuan Province, where Chengdu is the capital. The heat may in fact have exacerbated the virus’s spread: Several
supplies are ample, Shanghai had offered similar assurances, only to see widespread reported shortages of food and medicine.To many, the panic buying in Chengdu underscored how deeply previous lockdowns — especially the grueling two-month shutdown of Shanghai earlier this year — had shaken people. Though Chengdu officials have tried to reassure residents that food
did actually lock down, social media erupted with support for the man and anger at the government.Chengdu officials themselves have already tested residents’ trust, after the authorities last week ordered a man detained for 15 days, accusing him of spreading false rumors on social media about a looming lockdown. Two days later, when the city
ordered most of the city’s 18 million residents to stay at home, postponed the start of the school year and shuttered most public transit, after detecting about 400 cases in the past week.“Everyone is scared, scared that the situation will become like Shanghai,” said Mr. Chen, the office worker, who had traveled to Chengdu on business before becoming trapped there by the restrictions.
Still, he saw little alternative but to bear with the situation. “Personally, I’m extremely fed up with and not supportive of these policies. But there’s nothing I can do,” he said. “I can only wait.”
The drive for zero cases at all costs has also led to widespread shutdowns in Shenzhen, one of China’s most economically vital metropolises, home to major tech companies, including Tencent and Huawei. There, the local authorities over the weekend
expense. Over the weekend, at least 33 cities were under some form of restrictions, according to Caixin, a Chinese news outlet.Lockdowns are being extended in parts of Hainan Province and in the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, major vacation destinations where flare-ups of infections last month led to thousands of tourists being trapped in their hotels, sometimes at their own
profiting while regular people were suffering economically. Testing companies have reported soaring revenue in public filings.As the restrictions have spread across the country, so has public discontent. In Chengdu, the testing failures prompted a flurry of outrage at the company responsible, with online commenters noting that certain sectors focused on Covid control were
medical care because of Covid restrictions.In Daqing, a city of nearly 3 million people in China’s northeast that has been locked down for about two weeks, local officials promised to investigate widely shared social media reports of a pregnant woman who miscarried after being denied
the weekend requirements only as universal testing — then added that residents should immediately return home afterward. The Chengdu announcement said residents would “in principle stay at home.”Even the government appears to have tacitly acknowledged that people’s patience is fraying. In many of the cities recently sealed off, officials have gone to great lengths not to call the measures a lockdown. In Shenzhen, local officials described
go back to school and is missing the start of her senior year.On the social media platform Weibo, the hashtag “Chengdu lockdown” has been censored.
Still, no matter what new terms officials use, this experience feels familiar to Freya Yang, a college student from Chengdu. She spent the spring almost entirely unable to leave her campus in Beijing. Now, after going home for the summer, she can’t
“Everyone only knows what they’re going through, which is that you can’t go outside,” Ms. Yang said. “These word games, people don’t really care about them.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/world/asia/china-covid-lockdowns.htmlNew York Times is reporting statements from individuals.
Such statement reporting like
"As China Imposes More Covid Lockdowns, ‘Everyone Is Scared’"
not buttressed by statistics is not fact reporting. China has 1.4
billion people, there would be people who are scared for whatever
reason.
However, it is an excellent tool in disinformation.
If the goal is not to misinform, shouldn't journalist explicitly state the article is based
on her direct interaction of X number of people from what part of China.
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