Yesterday, we updated you on the Xi’an city-wide lockdown at midnight, December 22nd. Citizens rushed to the supermarkets to buy food. More news from China surfaced on twitter; I am grabbing some screenshots to give you a casual glimpse of a Chinese lockdown.
Sohu news broadcasted the annoucement from the Internet Report Center of Shaanxi province (Xi’an belongs to Shaanxi province).
(Very Rough translation)
Under the most wise leadership of dear Supreme leader and all levels of our bosses, we announce:
(Rough translation)
To all ministries of the provincial government, all companies, social organisations and individuals, if you find the following type of behavior or information:
1. The distribution or spreading of information related to "COVID" and "fighting pandemics" through un-official channels.
2. The spreading of rumours and illegal information on "development of the epidemics", "disinfection and prevention", "traffic control", "power cuts", "community control", "resumption of work and schooling", "personnel changes", etc.
3. Illegal and unlawful acts of using speculative reports, click bait headlines, untrue exaggerations to attract attention, and incitement and creation of social panic.
4. The usage of epidemic prevention and control to attack the government, attack the social system, denigrate the governance of the country.
Please report it to the Internet Report Center of Shaanxi Province in a timely manner.
“Chinese New Weekly”, which belongs to the China News Agency, published an online article “Interrogating the Xi’an Epidemic”. The article was widely shared and hence promptly taken off from the internet. Therefore, if you click the link you will get the famous “404” treatment.
However, some people took a screenshot, and here is a rough translation of the most Kafkaesque part from it
A passenger stuck in the north train station recalled his experience of being totally disoriented by the policies on social media:
"I queued for 1 hour for the PCR test, then waited for the result for 12 hours, I bought the high-speed-train ticket, and it took me 1 hour to go to the train station.
I queued for another hour, was informed that I needed a certificate from the street office where I live, so I had to return the train ticket.
It took another hour by car to go to the street office, where I queued for half an hour. The street office people said that since we are the low-risk area, there is no need for the certificate, a PCR test within 24 hours should do.
I recorded the conversation, then spent another hour to return to the high-speed railway station. The station staff said there must be a certificate.
So I returned to the street office, and the PCR test just expired. Now I have to queue for the PCR test again.
12 hours later, I am back at the street office for the certificate. The street office says that I need to get certificate from my residential district.
At the district level, I write a letter of promise, got a stamp from the district on the letter and came back to the street office. The staff said the leadership is negotiating, and so on and so forth.
Then, my PCR test expired..."
It is not clear which of the four restrictions mentioned above were violated, the original article can’t be found on the internet.
I guess the state media cannot be trusted after all?
Deutsche Welle is among the few foreign medias that noticed the deleted news article and reported it. On twitter, DW Chinese gleefully wrote:
Warm reminder: this time it is the China News Weekly under the China News Agency who has cursed the lockdown. Do not bring the wrong wind direction, the net army downstairs.
“Net Army” refers to the twitter accounts hired by the CCP to influence overseas social media.
“Bring the wrong wind direction” is internet slang. Commonly used by CCP to counter criticism from Chinese society, implying that the people who criticise have hidden motives.
And sure the net army descented in the comments.
It's great, who else would the vaccines be sold to?Those who obey me are the public opinion, those who disobey me are the internet army. Tsk, tsk, tsk, you definitely got this double standard from your elder generations.I suggest that people don't target Germany when you are against this tweet. Because firstly, DW doesn't represent the position of the German government, just as RFI doesn't represent France, they represent the United States, which is waging an ideological war. Secondly, the editors sitting in front of their computers reading your replies are not Germanic or Gallic, they are all Taiwanese frogs and they will not feel anything if you dislike Germany and France.Isn't it still better than Germany?You are spooked because you know too little. We are often criticized by the official media, but you always say that we have no freedom of speech.
Forbidden to pass
If you run around we will break your legs.
If your skin is itchy we will beat your mouth.
“Skin itchy” is a local slang, it means that you are asking for trouble by talking back.
No new melon found today.
However, the Bejing police department just launched an investigation about rumours spred on social media regarding the actress Tong Liya.
On Zhihu, Chinese quora, many people posted “I am a ‘stupid cunt’” in response. It expresses the frustration of most people of being lied so much like they are very very stupid (in Chinese, ‘stupid cunt’ is a very colloquial insult, a single word meaning very stupid and despicable).
On Weibo, some people complained that, for this melon, they lost multiple social media accounts. One guy said, in his 10 years on Weibo, this must be the biggest melon. Someone replied to him: “no way, the one last month was way bigger. So big that you did not even have a chance to hear about it.” (very few people heard about the sotry of Grand Slam winner inside China.)