Everyday from the world: The plight of the Shanghai people in corona quarantine is more compassionate in the world than in China, writes Asian correspondent Kirsi Crowley.
2.5. 13:58 • Updated 2.5. 14:06
BEIJING The younger man looked at me with a serious look behind his glasses.
– I guess you’ve already bought enough food for quarantine?
The opening of the conversation was not at all strange.
We watched our dogs play in the park. My interlocutor was of the opinion that we would soon not be able to even take a dog to pee from our homes in Beijing either. Shanghai has shown that omikron is spreading everywhere.
Shanghaiers were quarantined in their homes just over a month ago, but thousands of new coronavirus infections still appear in the city every day. China’s largest economic center is currently being opened cautiously.
In Beijing, my chat partner has lockers full of food for six weeks. I began to evaluate in my mind how long my own tuna cans and pasta in the closet would be enough to seal.
Many Beijingers are not very worried. So far, a large proportion of the people I have met have convinced the capitalist with confidence that Beijing will not be in the same predicament as Shanghai. After all, we are indeed in the capital.
Beijing’s corona action looks like an alien elephant frightening a mouse. Test tents and queues of people meandering around them can be seen in the city every few blocks. Twenty million Beijingers are now tested three times a week for just a few hundred detected infections. This is one of the main means of zero tolerance when trying to nail an omicron nestled in a city.
The hard work is also evident in my home neighborhood. Two high-rise buildings have already been quarantined and some residents have been quarantined for only a few positive corona infections. The harsh grips of China’s zero tolerance are only a hundred yards away from my home.
In Shanghai, the resilience of many who endure at home is on the verge of breaking.
The shouts of anxious people locked up in their homes and worried about their access to food, and the anxious videos uploaded by Some, have not touched nearly all Beijingers. And not just because traditionally the capital and the center of the business elite have always been in competition.
In China, the people usually blame local authorities for tumbling and the inability to implement the policies of the country’s leadership or party.
According to China’s zero tolerance line, suburbs or cities will be closed so that the rest of the population in the big country can live as normal a daily life as possible.
For many Beijingers, this explanation sinks. Here, many consider the people of Shanghai, China’s largest business, to be self-centered and weak in their tolerance, and Shanghai to be just one city that would have to be able to carry its pile of cards to keep infections from spreading elsewhere.
In the capital, many criticize the Shanghai authorities for the fact that mass tests were only carried out when there were more than a thousand infections in the city of 25 million people. The number of infections rose to hundreds of thousands. However, the majority of infections have been asymptomatic.
In Beijing, local authorities have a sense of the situation, people thought, obediently settling into the corona test queue. The test order came early – already when the number of detected infections had barely risen to a hundred.
– I have to compromise on my own freedom to help others, my acquaintance in Beijing, when we consider the harsh conditions in Shanghai.
On the other hand, the propaganda machinery and censorship will ensure that the criticism doesn’t show up in the Chinese some long enough for a wave of sympathy to permeate the entire country.
Many are genuinely afraid of coronavirus infection and its spread from one city to another. In China, the news has been showing pandemic panic around the world for the past two years, with thousands of people killed in Europe and the United States. At the same time, it was praised how the closure of the city of Wuhan for nearly three months at the start of the pandemic removed the coronavirus from China and the economy and people’s daily lives almost returned to normal.
The Chinese leadership has justified strict zero tolerance by prioritizing human lives and health. It relies on the carrying capacity of medical care and, in particular, the large number of unvaccinated elderly people. According to the authorities (you will switch to another service) In Shanghai, those who have died of coronavirus infection in recent weeks have been elderly and pre-ill.
Pekingese also resemble the elderly.
– Our parents endured for up to three years without food. The Shanghai people complain if they do not get fresh vegetables every day, one Beijinger snorted.
He meant the authoritarian leader of China decades ago Mao Zedongin coercive measures that led to famine. Despite the harsh grips, Mao is still valued in China.
So far, many Beijingers believe that the omicron will only be overcome by closing individual neighborhoods, schools and entertainment venues for a while.
From the time of Mao to the Chinese spinal cord has missed the appreciation of regular meals. So even the proud Beijingers ran into panic purchases on Sunday when authorities announced millions of forced tests. Last Monday morning, my convenience store was out of vegetables and out of milk. The meat counter yawned. Even if the closure is not believed, there are preparations for it.
The authorities want to prove that the matter is in possession. Preparations had already been made for bringing food to Beijing. Already on Tuesday morning, the store shelves were swaying with vegetables again, and milk was also found.
So far, many Beijingers believe that the omicron will only be overcome by closing individual neighborhoods, schools and entertainment venues for a while. If this happens, the authorities can boast of zero-tolerance victory and justify Shanghai’s suffering only as a necessary short-term sacrifice in the common interest.
Even in Beijing, refrigerators are full of food for weeks – just in case. Zero tolerance when has not yet stopped the omicron.