Residents Complain About Being Fenced Off in Shanghai

Government takes down online video about conditions during COVID lockdown
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 24, 2022 3:30 PM CDT
Shanghai Residents Complain About Lockdown Conditions
A worker sprays disinfectant Friday on a truck at a food production facility in Shanghai in a photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency.   (Zhang Jiansong/Xinhua via AP)

Shanghai residents are objecting to the Chinese government's stepped-up lockdown to keep the coronavirus from spreading in the city, a campaign that now includes fencing off streets and residential buildings. "This is so disrespectful of the rights of the people inside, using metal barriers to enclose them like domestic animals," said a user on Weibo, a social media platform. Postings on social media show workers in white hazmat suits erecting the green fencing, Reuters reports. Shanghai reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths of the outbreak on Saturday—39, after listing 12 for the day before.

Other videos showed people shouting at workers putting up fencing from their balconies and the workers then taking the fencing away. Some showed people trying to take the fencing down. Many of Shanghai's 25 million residents have had to stay in their homes for weeks; that's the case in buildings in which someone has tested positive for the coronavirus. Locked-down residents also are complaining about conditions in general, including lack of food and medical care, as well as the separation of families.

A six-minute video, called "The Voice of April," being shared on Weibo and WeChat combines clips of people complaining, per the BBC. "We haven't eaten for days now," someone says in an audio clip. "This virus can't kill us. Starvation can," another person says. Officials started taking the video down on Saturday, even as new copies were being put up elsewhere online. That brought more complaints. "The video was just presenting raw facts. There is nothing provocative!" a Weibo post said. Officials said Shanghai now has more than 23,000 COVID cases. (More COVID-19 stories.)

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