Empty streets, closed businesses, residents reduced to expressing themselves from their windows. The scene looks like spring 2020. However, things are going well this month April 2022, Shanghai (China).
Because more than two years after the emergence of Covid-19, China’s second largest city is still reduced to seclusion to fight against its spread. A restriction, the first of its kind for China’s economic capital, has left its residents in ever greater distress. And more and more visible.
Screams of rage at the windows of Shanghai
In recent days, many videos showing the plight of Shanghai residents have been leaked on social media.
The most notable of them, broadcast by BFMTV on YouTube, has local residents heard shouting their anger at their windows.
Many observers also shared on Twitter images of a man shouting his anger on the phone in the middle of the street. Where is the Communist Party? »he shouts.
lack of food and water
The authorities are indeed under fire from critics. For imposing such drastic measures, but also for taking their consequences so poorly.
Because we were hungry in the first few days of this detention in Shanghai. Very hungry. “It was difficult in the first few days because we lacked food and sight”, testifies Frédéric, a French expatriate interviewed by TV5 Monde. lack of food, “it’s very awesome”, confirms Alexandre, another Frenchman from Shanghai, on the RMC microphone. And there is also a lack of water, he adds. Tap water is undrinkable in Shanghai. The advice to boil water to drink? With all the heavy metals and pollution, I don’t really feel like it. »
On Twitter, Don Weiland, a correspondent for The Economist newspaper, says he too has encountered this problem. My hotel ran out of waterhe testifies. And I’m in a hotel in a central part of town. I can’t even imagine how awful things have gotten in other sectors.”
“You advised me to buy online”, also explains Don Weiland. Buy online… If only it were possible. Mobile ordering apps often crash. For “Service Temporarily Unavailable” messages, warns Guillaume, a New Caledonian tied to the place who interviewed La Première. On social networks, others ask themselves: And even if it works, how are the elderly doing?
“stay home period”
Because for them, like the rest, it is impossible to overcome the failures of the delivery apps and that of the authorities, who are struggling to provide adequate care for the city’s 26 million inhabitants.
The restrictions imposed on Shanghai are in fact one of the strictest, preventing the population from going out, even if only to shop. Specifically, we are tied to the house, we are not allowed to go out. We have a dog and we can’t even walk him.sums up Gaël, a local Auvergnat interviewed by France 3 . “The only rule is to stay home, period”confirms Guillaume.
And to prevent emigration, local government methods are draconian. At RMC, Alexandre states that he There is a padlock on (his) door. So we can’t leave our building under any circumstances..
For the others, those who can still go out, the orders to return home are numerous. Le Monde correspondent Simon Leplâtre tweeted a video showing a man ordering a resident “return to his place)”with a megaphone.
This somewhat absurd scene illustrates the mildest side of anti-eviction repression currently on display in Shanghai. Because other images, including those broadcast by France 2 in this report, show much more violent arrests.
Test anytime, anywhere
This stay-at-home rule still suffers from one exception that Shanghai residents could well have done without: the obligation to get tested regularly. Very regularly.
On April 12, a BBC journalist announced on Twitter that he would be taking his 6th PCR test on the 12th day of his confinement.
And these tests can take place at any time. We have friends, they come to wake them up at 3am so they can do some tests! »explains Aline, interviewed by Le Parisien . Jean, who was also interviewed by the Ile-de-France newspaper, talks about testing ” at midnight “.
The specter of terrible quarantine camps
Outdated, these tests also have another shortcoming: being able to be carried out in a quarantine center. A prospect feared by many Shanghai residents. “We’re afraid to be positive and to be put in camps where we stay for a week, a week and a half, in fairly spartan conditions.”sums up Alexandre at the RMC microphone.
Marek, a Polish student whom Ouest-France was able to interview, mentions them “permanent stress” send to one of them “terrible quarantine centers”.
These were described in particular by Thomas, a French who is positive for Covid-19 and is staying there. ” Against his will “indicates the journalist from France Culture who was able to contact him.
In particular, he explains that these huge hangars, crammed with thousands of people, have not done so “no window” and that it is therefore impossible for him “Knowing if it is day or night”.
And, he continues, We don’t have access to showers, we wash with tap water, in cold water. The first day I washed with hydroalcoholic gel.. Promiscuity is also very difficult for him to live with. “People, when they’re sick, they cough, they spit. It wakes me up all night, it’s the worst thing for me. It’s really disgusting. »
A Chinese interviewed by RTS confirms: ” There are a lot of people. I tried to count yesterday, it must be more than 3000. It’s not easy to sleep at night, the light is on all the time. It’s like daylight. And then it’s very loud”.
Short, “That or prison… I don’t think there would be much of a difference.”, concludes Thomas. A prison where children who test positive are also taken, who are then separated from their parents.
A loosening without much effect
Chinese authorities, aware of the major protests these methods have sparked in the city and parts of the international community, recently announced a slight relaxation of prison conditions. The residents of certain parts of the city can therefore move out under certain conditions.
In practice, however, these adjustments have very little impact. Frédéric Schaeffer, the local Echos correspondent, therefore points this out on Twitter “The streets remain deserted”.
And in fact, Arnauld Miguet, the correspondent of France 2, specifies that this deconfinement concerns that Certain neighborhoods, certain buildings […] where there have been no cases for at least 14 days.
A large number of Shanghai residents are therefore still detained at this time. And for them it is difficult to know when this arduous confinement will end.
NARRATIVE. Covid-19: in Shanghai the hell of the zero Covid strategyEXPANSION