Since Mid-May, Shanghai government has announced zero new COVID cases in the society (i.e. people who are not in hospital or quarantine centers) for three days, and “lockdown” was supposed eased (we mentioned it in our Newsletter 59. But the reality on the ground was often contradictory. Many people reported that they were not allowed to go out yet. Sometimes, the residents got victory because foreigners were involved, one time it was a car with license plate from Italian consulate that forced the police to retreat, another time, it was a French lady who was leading a rebellion. Although it was hard to verify, those stories amused people to think that colonialism is called for in China.
Finally, on May 31st, Shanghai Government made its last COVID press conference, announcing that most of the residential areas in Shanghai resume freedom of getting in and out. They specifically pointed out that the residential committees had no power to stop people from entering or exiting the gates.
At midnight, some neighbourhood celebrated with a countdown.
According to social media, in the press conference on May 29th, the government formally denied that there was a lockdown.
The government threw the residential committees under the bus, claiming that the residential committees were autonomous grassroot organizations and each residential areas made their own decision with consensus of the community. Unless there are written documents from the government, the government will not bear any legal responsibility for the results of the decisions of the residential committees.
So, what is a residential committee? It is a neighbourhood organization. In normal times, it deals with daily events, often disagreement between neighbours. They receive their salary from the government, and there is a party branch in the committee. During the lockdown, they are the ones that decide who can get in and out and what deliveries get in. They often get police backup if needed.
Now the statement of the Shanghai government surprised even Shanghai citizens. They clearly did not know that they have lock themselves willingly. Every time the residential committee made new restrictions, it was an order from “higher ups”, without any documents, because that was how things worked in China. Now, all of these were just made up?
So, if you read from western media that Shanghai Lockdown is finally over, it is fake news: there was never a lockdown.
Wikipedia documented the Shanghai COVID situation in Chinese, with great details, hopefully the memory of it will be preserved outside China.