{"id":429244,"date":"2022-04-09T23:57:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T20:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-china-brutalizes-its-people-to-try-to-achieve-covid-zero\/"},"modified":"2022-04-09T23:57:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-09T20:57:48","slug":"how-china-brutalizes-its-people-to-try-to-achieve-covid-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-china-brutalizes-its-people-to-try-to-achieve-covid-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"#How China brutalizes its people to try to achieve \u2018COVID Zero\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3dcaf1c11ee\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3dcaf1c11ee\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-china-brutalizes-its-people-to-try-to-achieve-covid-zero\/#%E2%80%9CHow_China_brutalizes_its_people_to_try_to_achieve_%E2%80%98COVID_Zero%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;How China brutalizes its people to try to achieve \u2018COVID Zero\u2019&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CHow_China_brutalizes_its_people_to_try_to_achieve_%E2%80%98COVID_Zero%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;How China brutalizes its people to try to achieve \u2018COVID Zero\u2019&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>For over two weeks the financial capital of China, Shanghai, has been locked down tight.\u00a0Some 26 million people languish in their apartments, staring at their now-empty refrigerators, unable to set foot outside to forage for food for fear of arrest and incarceration.<\/p>\n<p>Foreigners are in the same predicament, as one <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jaredtnelson\/status\/1510401412072718343\">complained on Twitter<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><em>Day 16 of our COVID lockdown in Shanghai today and food is the key thing on people\u2019s minds. We aren\u2019t allowed to leave home so delivery is the only way I was up at 6 am yesterday trying to get any kind of delivery but nothing was available all day. So far, same results today<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yet the homebound are the lucky ones.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The unlucky ones are those who test positive for COVID each day, like the 17,077 Shanghainese\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/globaltimesnews\/status\/1511503445462712321\">who did<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday.\u00a0Symptomatic or not \u2014 and nine out of 10 show no signs of illness \u2014 they are hauled off to hastily erected quarantine camps.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Shanghai lockdown, the largest since the first Wuhan lockdown two years ago, is China\u2019s latest attempt to achieve COVID Zero. An army of health care workers, some 38,000 in all, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/apr\/05\/this-is-inhumane-the-cost-of-zero-covid-in-shanghai\">have\u00a0been sent\u00a0to Shanghai<\/a>, with instructions to completely stamp out the coronavirus within the city.\u00a0They <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/article\/current-affairs\/shanghai-completes-testing-26-mn-people-as-china-reports-new-covid-variant-122040401282_1.html\">are frantically\u00a0testing\u00a0and retesting<\/a> everyone.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unable to protest their lock-up any other way, people have taken to venting their anger by\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GundamNorthrop\/status\/1511397246868238340\">yelling out<\/a>\u00a0of their apartment windows.\u00a0Most of their complaints have to do with food.\u00a0\u201cWe have no food to eat,\u201d they scream. \u201cWe haven\u2019t eaten in a very long time.\u00a0\u00a0We are starving to death.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>One starving lockdowner found a quieter way to protest his growling stomach.\u00a0\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jenniferatntd\/status\/1511385710514868233\">He\u00a0rolled\u00a0his refrigerator<\/a> onto his balcony and opened its doors.\u00a0The inside is completely empty.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Other protests have taken more tragic forms.\u00a0As they did in Wuhan two years ago, people are once again jumping off the balconies of high-rise apartment buildings.\u00a0One video circulating in China\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jenniferatntd\/status\/1510980839546540041\">shows a couple<\/a>\u00a0falling to their deaths.\u00a0The husband was said to be distraught because the lockdown had cost him his business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/health-workers-china.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"&quot;Big Whites&quot; patrol the streets and arrest any citizens that don't abide by harsh quarantine laws.\" class=\"wp-image-21813455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/health-workers-china.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/health-workers-china.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/health-workers-china.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>\u201cBig Whites\u201d security forces patrol the streets and arrest and jail any citizens that don\u2019t abide by harsh quarantine laws.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">EPA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul id=\"block-c62ff705-57e8-4bd7-9ccf-fa0204991f83\">\n<li>Those desperate enough to venture outside in their search for food are hunted down by \u201cBig Whites\u201d \u2014 members of the security forces who owe their nickname to the white hazmat suits they wear.\u00a0Patrolling the streets day and night, the \u201cBig Whites\u201d\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jenniferatntd\/status\/1510989886811168774\">arrest and jail<\/a>\u00a0anyone caught breaking quarantine, who often get beaten in the process.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/shanghai-womans-16-hour-bus-ride-into-quarantine-my-only-wish-is-to-leave-this-place-alive-11649131637\">Those\u00a0sent\u00a0to mass quarantine<\/a> camps for testing positive for COVID have it scarcely better.\u00a0These makeshift facilities often lack basic necessities.\u00a0One video from Shanghai\u2019s Nanhui camp shows\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsonweibo.com\/chaotic-scenes-at-shanghai-nanhui-quarantine-site\/\">people fighting over<\/a>\u00a0limited supplies of blankets, water and food.<\/li>\n<li>No one, not even small children, is exempted from the quarantine rule.\u00a0Hundreds of infants and toddlers have been\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jenniferatntd\/status\/1510303560495472654\">separated from their parents<\/a>\u00a0after testing positive.\u00a0As one grieving <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/apr\/05\/this-is-inhumane-the-cost-of-zero-covid-in-shanghai\">mother\u00a0complained\u00a0on social media<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m so upset \u2026 This is inhumane.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Like China\u2019s previous efforts to contain the highly infectious Omicron variant, this one too is doomed to fail, although not before extracting an enormous cost.\u00a0\u00a0The dimensions of human suffering comes through in some of the videos posted by the suffering residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As these stories suggest, China has unleashed yet another COVID Horror Show on its population.\u00a0But why?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/resident-rooftop.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"A resident sits near the edge of a rooftop of a building during the second stage of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in the Jing'an district of Shanghai.\" class=\"wp-image-21813470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/resident-rooftop.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/resident-rooftop.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/resident-rooftop.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A resident sits near the edge of a rooftop of a building during the second stage of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the Jing\u2019an district of Shanghai.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Virtually every person on the planet now recognizes that they are simply going to have to live with the coronavirus from now on, in the same way that we have learned to live with the seasonal flu.\u00a0Even countries that clung to China\u2019s mass containment model well into 2021, such as Australia, New Zealand and Germany, are now abandoning it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Chinese Communist Party continues to pursue the impossible dream of COVID Zero.<\/p>\n<p>Now, you might say that no political organization likes to admit it was wrong.\u00a0In fact, when asked recently why China refused to recognize that COVID was now endemic, a top official of the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/covid-19\/president-xi-faces-impossible-dilemma-shanghai-covid-outbreak-worsens-despite-lockdown\">National Health Commission\u00a0simply said<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cIf we stop all containment measures now, it means all the previous efforts are for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/china-quarantine-2.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"A boy in quarantine looks through a shop window in a shuttered restaurant in Shanghai, China, on March, 29 2022.\" class=\"wp-image-21843914\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/china-quarantine-2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/china-quarantine-2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/china-quarantine-2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A boy in quarantine looks through a shop window in a shuttered restaurant in Shanghai, China, on March, 29 2022.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">EPA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But at an even deeper level, I see the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s insistence on lockdowns as an expression of its drive for total control.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I am reminded of the CCP official who, in 1980, at the very beginning of the one-child policy, confidently proclaimed:\u00a0\u201cWe are a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a>ist country.\u00a0We can control reproduction in the same way we control production: under a state plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now Xi Jinping\u2019s attitude seems to be: \u201cWe are a socialist country.\u00a0We can control the replication of a virus in the same way we control production: under a state plan.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/woman-lockdown-china.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"A woman stands in a locked down compound, in Shanghai.\" class=\"wp-image-21813475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/woman-lockdown-china.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/woman-lockdown-china.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/woman-lockdown-china.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A Shanghai woman stands in a locked-down compound.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">EPA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I doubt it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Steven W. Mosher is the author of\u00a0\u201cBully of Asia: Why China\u2019s Dream is the New Threat to World Order.<\/em>\u201c\n                        <\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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Foreigners are&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":429245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/china-quarantine-1.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[127765,4973,1545,67243,71663],"class_list":["post-429244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4-9-22","tag-china","tag-coronavirus","tag-lockdown","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}