Shanghai has become the center of the country’s largest Covid outbreak.
Shanghai:
Shanghai residents scuffle with hazmat-clad police demanding they hand over homes to Covid-19 patients, social media video shows, providing a rare glimpse into growing discontent in the megacity on China’s inflexible virus response.
Shanghai, a city of 25 million people and China’s economic locomotive, has become the epicenter of the country’s biggest outbreak since the peak of the first virus wave in Wuhan more than two years ago. years ago, shaking the country’s adherence to the country’s strict zero Covid policy.
Residents locked up since early April have complained of food shortages and officials are too eager to force them into state quarantine, as authorities rush to build tens of thousands of beds to house the sick. Covid-19 patients infected daily up to 20,000 people.
Late on Thursday, videos circulating on social media showed residents outside one block shouting at ranks of officials holding shields labeled “police”, as officers tried to break through their lines. .
April 14, at the Naxi International Community in #Shanghaipolice suppress and evict residents so that their homes can be used as #Isolation website for #Covid-19#CCPChina#CCPViruspic.twitter.com/EdOAcB1xgG
– Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferatntd) April 14, 2022
In one clip, police appear to have made several arrests as residents accuse them of “beating people”.
The incident occurred after authorities ordered 39 households to move out of the property “to meet the needs of epidemic prevention” and virus patients in their apartments, according to Zhangjiang Group, the developer of the complex. housing case.
It has provided a rare opportunity for public anger in China, a country where the Communist government has little dissent and censors often wipe out information related to it. protests off the internet as soon as it is uploaded.
In a live streamed video, a woman can be heard crying and asking “why would they take an old person?” when officials show up to get someone into a car.
Zhangjiang Group said it compensated tenants and moved them to other units in the same building.
In another live-streamed video, a woman can be heard shouting, “Zhangjiang Group is trying to turn our block into an isolation point and allow Covid-positive people to live in the compound.” ours.”
The group realized videos of the property had “appeared on the internet” on Thursday and said “the situation has now calmed down” after “some tenants obstructed the construction” of the isolation fence.
China’s censors quickly stepped in to remove evidence of the clash from Chinese social media sites – as they have done with several other videos that have surfaced in the past few weeks – with results Searching for the name of the apartment complex has disappeared from Twitter-like Weibo on Friday morning.
Shanghai residents took to social media to vent about food shortages and heavy-handed control measures, including the killing of a pet corgi by medical staff and the policy of separating children. infected with the virus from an uninfected parent.
Authorities declared the city “won’t relax one bit”, preparing more than a hundred new isolation facilities to accommodate people who test positive – whether they show symptoms or not. .
