Last time we devoted the newsletter to stories of COVID in China was 2 months ago, in June, in Newsletter 75.
Pockets of Shenzhen have been put in lockdown at different times throughout the summer. But lately, it seems that the virus is winning.
First, the biggest Electronic wholesale market was put in lockdown on August 29th. This got international coverage.
Meanwhile, the Asia Pet Fair, which was scheduled to open on September 1st, was shut down in the middle of the night of August31/September 1st. There was not much news coverage. But the participants of the fair were really tearful about that treatment. They say:
“I finally experienced the so-called “running for your life in the middle of the night.” The expo has 220,000 square meters, 10,000 business. We had just prepared everything, in the middle of the night of August 31st, 8 hours before the opening of the expo, it was announced that the expo was cancelled. Rumours said that they will put the expo hall in lockdown. Everyone abandoned their products and ran to the airport. The price of the plane tickets kept rising. Some tickets price went up by 10,000 yuan.
The construction of the exhibition, and the products, are all wasted. Every business lost hundreds of thousands of yuan. When they locked down Luohu district (where Huaqiangbei is located), did they not know anything about here? If they informed us one day earlier we would not have to construct the exhibition and bring the products. This industry is so hard hit.
We have waited for 12 months for this expo. “
A video from Douyin was uploaded on Twitter. You can see the exhibitions set up in the the expo hall. The young woman says, “it is not just the money, but also our hope and passion for this industry.” She said that everyone was so disappointed, and no one wants to work any more.
Like Shenzhen, Chengdu government has a tendency to surprise people. On August 29th, a man with internet nickname Tropical Rainforest (Redaiyulin) posted on his Wechat moment that based on insider information he has got, Chengdu will be in lockdown. His message was so convincing that it got spread on social media and people started buying up everything in the supermarkets. On the 30th, the government charged him with “spreading rumours” and sentenced him to 15 days of administrative detention, and a 1000 yuan fine. People even joked that he created a Tropical Rainforest shopping festival.
On the August 31st, the government especially told people not to panic buy.
On September 1st, the government announced that the city of 21 millions will be “stay-in in principle” (aka a lockdown) from 6pm, and people need PCR test everyday.
Panic started all over the city.
Pushing the city to have daily PCR test also put strain on the system for updating the result. So, the PCR testing workers have to raise the phone in their hands up in the air to get stronger signals:
Twitter users were quick to remember that this is comparable to the 2014 World Press Photo of the Year.
Jilin, a province in the north east region of China is also going through a lockdown. And just like elsewhere, the citizens were starving because the government was ill-prepared for the lockdown.
The government of Jilin province gave a press conference to tell the world how wonderful the lockdown is, while it is live broadcasted, hundreds of people flooded the comment section with “I have nothing to eat”. So, the reaction was: shut down the comment section.
Some people reminded everyone the starving of people in Shanghai lockdown. It seems no matter how many times the government imposes lockdown on people, the same stories repeat: denial and surprise and lack of services to the people who are locked in their home, literally. In some area, it looks just like this:
Meanwhile, when private people or business tried to help each other, they sometimes got punished. During Shanghai lockdown, the subsidiary of Paris Baguette, a popular bakery, was found using an unlicensed site for production of food ordered by community group-purchase. The company was given a 580,000 yuan (US$84,158) fine.. Many customers in China decided to buy cakes from the bakery to show their appreciation of the company that fed them during the lockdown.
Some parts of Tibet is also in lockdown. Most of Chinese social media talks about stranded tourists on the highway. But this report gave much more details of the situation. Long story short, it is worse than the rest of China. But people are not allowed to talk about it.
The health code system in China that monitors people’s location and PCR tests is actually a collection of local apps. Every province has its own app, and the capital of the province has its own. It is very confusing and easy to abuse.
This is a board in an airport, to provide QR code for each needed health code app based on the destination for the passengers.
.
So, the central government now is saying that the health code has to be “perfected”, so that each regional health code recognizes each other.
You know what this means, right? It means COVID zero will last a long long time.
Many Chinese are already suspicious of the COVID zero policy is not about COVID, it is about total control of the population and subject them to total obedience. Since the economic reform in 1980s, Chinese people have had some taste of freedom of movement. Before 1980s, no one can really move in the country, especially for the country people. To get into a hotel, you need the state controlled units (no private company) you belong, to write you a letter. There is no way you can make a living outside of your unit. After the reform, some of the controls were lifted. People could move freely and buy properties anywhere and live anywhere, as long as they have money.
The COVID apps make it possible for the government, who may not be able to hold you down in one place, to know every location you have been to. And often whether you accept the PCR test is linked to your social credit score, and therefore impacts the future of you and your relatives.
It is hard to imagine China regressing back to the time of total control by the CCP and the government. But I think the country is heading that direction.
You might have hear, New UN Report Alleges Crimes Against Humanity was conducted by China in the Xinjiang region. (“OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China” - 48 pages
A groundbreaking United Nations report published on August 31, 2022, says the Chinese government has committed abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in the Xinjiang region, Human Rights Watch said today. The report by the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, contains victim accounts that substantiate mass arbitrary detention, torture, cultural persecution, forced labour, and other serious human rights violations, and recommends that states, businesses, and the international community take action with a view to ending the abuses, and advancing justice and accountability.
The report is long overdue, published in the last minutes of Michelle Bachelet’s term. Because of the strong opposition of China, no one was sure that the report would even be published, until it was published.
The report itself has in its last page a link to the Note Verbale of the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations in Geneva, dated 31 August 2022 at the request of the Chinese government. In case you wonder, wantonly means “in a deliberate and unprovoked way”.
In addition, various Chinese officials responded furiously to the United Nations report.
Internally, China made sure nothing about the report can be read inside the great firewall. The US embassy in China tried to use photos in its Wechat public account to tell its reader about the report, but they were quickly deleted.