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Hunger and anger in Shanghai's unending lockdown nightmare

Updated 1235 GMT (2035 HKT) April 19, 2022

(CNN)When my 73-year-old begetter raised business organisation nigh his shrinking food supply tardily last week, the ending brought by Shanghai's citywide Covid lockdown suddenly hit home.

"Will be running out in a few days if no government handout presently," he messaged me Th.

Then, as if anticipating my inevitable worry, he added: "Still have some rice and crackers -- and plenty of coffee."

It was a startling revelation on the grim reality in Cathay's biggest city and financial hub -- from a member of the generation that lived through the Great Famine and the tumultuous Cultural Revolution that killed millions during the first few decades of the People's Republic, founded in 1949 by Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong.

Even during the darkest days in Mao's People's republic of china, my parents -- Shanghai-built-in and bred -- used to remind me that, unlike many in the countryside, they were fortunate enough not to fear the prospect of starvation.

At present, with lockdown measures turning increasingly callous, a once most-unthinkable topic has struck a chord with residents in the urban center and beyond, more and so than anything else: people going hungry in Shanghai in 2022.

Past the authorities' own acquittance, the nutrient shortage has been a largely man-made disaster owing to a lack of planning and coordination.

Despite official pledges, government handouts accept been unreliable in many parts of the city, including my father'due south apartment complex in northeastern Shanghai filled with retirees like him. The elderly oversupply had mostly failed to secure supplies through online majority-purchases, practically the only way to buy anything in Shanghai at the moment, due to their relatively modest demand and lack of tech-savviness.

I set out to help but never had I thought online grocery shopping would be such an emotional rollercoaster.

Armed with a membership for a retail warehouse gild -- presumably allowing me to face less stiff competition than those using a full general online grocer -- I quickly realized information technology was incommunicable to grab one of the coveted commitment slots, which are assigned at nine p.m. daily, fifty-fifty with food notwithstanding available on the virtual shelves.

The retailer's app just crashed each night -- and would merely come back online a few hours later with a glaring "no more delivery slots for the day" message.

Every bit frustration and anxiety built upwards, my hope dwindled forth with my father'due south supply. On Solar day 2 of my futile attempts, a friend tipped me off about a "boutique" online retailer that was yet offering a grocery parcel with next-twenty-four hour period commitment slots. Elated to observe out she was right, I immediately ordered for my father.

When I broke the good news in the online family unit group chat, however, uncles and aunts -- all facing their own food shortage to various degrees -- jumped in to express their shock that I willingly paid 398 yuan ($62) for five kilograms of vegetables and lx eggs.

"Highway robbery!" cried one uncle, while an aunt stressed the toll was more than than iv times what she would normally pay for the same amount of food in the market place.

"But these are boutique eggs," my dad deadpanned.

I was relieved that my male parent'due south fridge was replenished in time only, hearing relative's comments, felt a sense of "survivor's guilt": What about the countless residents who can't beget price-gouged groceries?

An indefinite lockdown

Literal survival wasn't a concern for most of Shanghai's 25 million residents before Apr.

For the past 2 years, the city had bolstered its status equally the most important international gateway to China -- for both people and goods. It had prided itself on its more than targeted and lenient approach to Covid containment, despite Beijing's strict nothing-Covid policy.

With Shanghai shunning citywide mass testing and adopting less restrictive quarantine rules, it once looked like a potential role model for the whole land every bit the rest of the world had largely called to live with Covid with an emphasis on vaccination.

Then came Omicron, with the highly contagious Covid variant sweeping through the city and infecting more than 390,000 residents since March, co-ordinate to government statistics.

After repeatedly denying the city would be locked downwardly -- with police even announcing a probe into alleged online rumormongers -- Shanghai authorities abruptly changed course in late March and sealed off the unabridged metropolis at the beginning of April.

The regime initially billed information technology as a iv-day "temporary break" -- claiming they would promptly examination the entire population, isolate positive cases and then re-open the metropolis. Equally a result, many residents never bothered to stock upwardly.

Despite widespread panic ownership before the lockdown, my begetter was amongst the unfazed. A retired electric engineer who enjoys travel, photography and coffee, he had recently strained his back muscles -- and wasn't going anywhere in any case.

Withal, his habitation confinement turned out to be much longer -- and more precarious -- than he ever envisioned.

With tens of thousands of new infections reported daily, the government has continued to extend the lockdown -- ordering any residential community with a single new positive instance to exist sealed for an boosted 14 days.

My begetter's apartment complex is currently slated to exist locked down until May ii. Just fifty-fifty that date remains uncertain, as the regime proceed to retest residents, significant the lockdown clock could reset at whatever fourth dimension.

For in one case, millions of people in Shanghai -- young and former, rich and poor, liberal and conservative -- seem united past their ascent acrimony.

Despite the censors' ferocious effort to erase all traces of bad news, social media users proceed recounting and re-posting heartbreaking stories, increasingly disgusted by highly choreographed state media images showing an orderly and effective lockdown.

Among my friends and family, near everyone has a personal story to share about the lockdown anarchy and misery: from sneaking out in darkness to barter some food with a neighbor, to learning harrowing experiences of a friend dumped into to a hastily built isolation ward with leaking roofs and overflowing toilets, and hearing the wailing of an sometime woman next door whose children were unable to see their newly deceased father one last time.

Propaganda adds insult to injury

People are as well seeing Chinese propaganda czars double downwards, painting Omicron as a potentially lethal threat while stressing that just zero-Covid can save Cathay from the deaths and havoc acquired by the virus in the West.

Officials have made it articulate the policy has the personal stamp of approving from the country's strongman leader, Xi Jinping, who has still to visit Shanghai -- a urban center he in one case led -- amongst the deepening crisis. Xi is expected to presume an nigh unprecedented third term afterwards this year, paving the way for him to rule for life.

Outside Shanghai, that message still seems to resonate with many, though debates take started to emerge and intensify. Inside the eerily repose metropolis, the lockdown and its ensuing calamity have become a watershed moment for locals and expatriates.

With state media headlines screaming "it'south not the flu!" against authorities statistics showing but nigh two dozen severe cases amidst the infected in Shanghai and then far, nearly everyone seems to agree on the apparent absurdity of "the solution existence worse than the trouble" -- particularly as stories surface on social media virtually deaths relating to those unable to receive medical intendance for not-Covid causes due to the lockdown.

Some residents take questioned online why the government appear more keen to attack critics of zilch-Covid than to convince residents aged over threescore in the fast-graying metropolis -- the almost vulnerable group with a disappointing vaccination rate of 62% -- to get the shot.

Others reverberate on the current tragedy and contemplate their side by side steps.

"How did Shanghai fall like this?" has been the line I take heard nearly often lately. It'southward more often than not a rhetorical question -- the real question seems to be "Shall I stay, or shall I get?"

For expats, many have been voting with their feet -- undaunted by the bureaucratic and logistical hoops they must jump through to only get out their residences.

For locals, it involves more than soul-searching but, echoing sentiment online, a growing number of Shanghainese -- native or adopted -- have told me they have decided to put their foot down to immigrate.

Entrepreneurs and bankers alike say the brutal lockdown has demonstrated money means aught in a globe where anyone can instantly become collateral damage in plans instigated by a afar and unaccountable leadership.

For virtually people in Shanghai, especially of the older generations like my male parent, they will e'er telephone call the metropolis home. They remain focused on surviving the ongoing nightmare, trying their luck with bulk-purchasing online.

My begetter said someone in his community recently initiated a coffee grouping-purchase try -- but quickly failed due to lack of interest.

"No one seems to exist in the mood for coffee right at present," he said.

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/19/china/shanghai-covid-lockdown-nightmare-intl-dst-hnk/index.html

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