Locked-in and hungry, Shanghai residents can't complain online
- Reference: 1649677507
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/04/11/lockedin_and_hungry_shanghai_residents/
- Source link:
The Shanghai office of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) warned citizens against spreading misinformation in an [1]announcement on Friday after rumors started appearing on WeChat that armed police would take over the city, and bulk communal buying of food would be outlawed.
By April 8, Beijing seemingly had some of its problems solved. Hashtags on WeChat discussing food shortages, like "Scrambling to secure food in Shanghai" (#上海抢菜#) and "Anxieties over food supplies in Shanghai" (#上海疫情下的抢菜焦虑#) [2]were allegedly blocked.
[3]
The hashtags were trending as citizens experienced food shortages, despite the government delivering food boxes to official and registered residents.
Tough times in Shanghai, but my compound just received a huge delivery of free groceries from the government - every apartment getting some variation on these veggies [4]pic.twitter.com/i3uZAyIqoy — Gavin Cross (@thanksgaving) [5]April 2, 2022
Concerns were voiced over the plight of unofficial residents, the elderly and large households. Many of the people experiencing lockdown spent a great deal of time searching for food on online apps. But availability sometimes disappeared within moments, increasing anxiety over food security.
"In other words, the basic livelihood of the people of Shanghai is now in great trouble, and the vast majority of the people of Shanghai spend their entire lives every day looking for channels to grab food," [6]wrote one Shanghai resident who described the scenario in a Google doc.
[7]
[8]
"Young people are better off, they can go through various software to toss, but many elderly people can't even play with their cell phones, so it's impossible to expect them to grab food online. It is a reality that some people are doing very well under the epidemic, while others are not doing well and are having problems with basic livelihood security," the individual added before confirming they also could not search the #ShanghaiEpidemic topic on Weibo.
The individual described the scenario as "chilling."
[9]Huawei CEO hopes to woo foreign boffins to work on 6G in Shanghai campus that feels just like home
[10]India's tech manufacturing growth stalled as COVID raged
[11]Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia are top sources of online misinformation
[12]Meta accused of hiring Republican consultancy to seed anti-TikTok rumors
On Sunday April 10, the CAC [13]posted a handy visual display of rumors it finds offensive. Some are lockdown related, others not.
Shanghai is not the only city given a stern warning. In Beijing, a sign sits atop a street warning citizens about the dangers lurking on the internet.
Signs in Beijing: "Do not post pandemic-related messages online."
and: "The internet is full of perils. Exercise caution on the internet."
via WeChat [14]pic.twitter.com/tbJ8OpRKGN — Dan Wang (@danwwang) [15]April 10, 2022
More bizarre stories have emerged from the lockdown, including robodogs [16]monitoring streets, [17]viral (and it has to be said, racist) threats from neighbors to eat one another (they were attempting to make a joke … The Reg hopes), pet [18]murders , viral songs about [19]clam dishes , and [20]viral recipe suggestions based on whatever was found in in the government-issued vegetable box that day.
Shanghai City official Gu Honghui said residents in areas with no positive cases during a two-week stretch may engage in "appropriate" activity within their neighborhood. He also said Shanghai would make "dynamic" adjustments to the new system and greater efforts to minimize the impact of restrictions.
[21]
On Friday April 8, state-sponsored media Xinhua [22]said there had been a total of 131,524 positive COVID cases in the city, of which only one was severe. There have allegedly been no deaths. ®
Get our [23]Tech Resources
[1] https://china.huanqiu.com/article/47WIox8C7bD
[2] https://weibo.com/5679860003/Lnu2CfaXE
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YlRQsq@P1iNyB8SV2R2d2wAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://t.co/i3uZAyIqoy
[5] https://twitter.com/thanksgaving/status/1510120586009214985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[6] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qb52g-Wo7E2PPgOCLW-0RB730h0hSDkYzco29CKQmJM/edit
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YlRQsq@P1iNyB8SV2R2d2wAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YlRQsq@P1iNyB8SV2R2d2wAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/15/huawei_6g_patents_foreign_talent/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/07/india_tech_manufacturing_stalls/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/31/russia_iran_and_saudi_arabia/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/31/meta_tiktok_lobbying/
[13] http://www.cac.gov.cn/2022-04/10/c_1651209225339823.htm
[14] https://t.co/tbJ8OpRKGN
[15] https://twitter.com/danwwang/status/1513148803821424640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/06/shanghai_lockdown_robots/
[17] https://www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/post/34292/we-caught-up-with-jacobie-kinsey-on-the-donteatme-incident
[18] https://www.whatsonweibo.com/another-pet-dog-beaten-to-death-by-healthcare-worker-growing-frustrations-about-shanghais-covid-lockdown/
[19] http://news.xinmin.cn/2022/03/22/32133210.html
[20] https://www.whatsonweibo.com/fried-belt-fish-on-the-menu-for-shanghai-residents-in-lockdown/
[21] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YlRQsq@P1iNyB8SV2R2d2wAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[22] http://sh.news.cn/2022-04/08/c_1310548843.htm
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
How bad can it really be when food delivery is a possibility?
"Young people are better off, they can... grab food online ."
Also, there's nothing more "West" than the zealous, righteous belief that your own view is the only correct view.
Re: Why are we blindly letting this happen?
@AC
Given the West did very little with the Uyghur genocide*, then a bit of lockdown won't make them do anything.
*Though, given Uyghurs are mainly Muslims a few leading Western politicians probably got a bit moist at the thought of them being persecuted.
Re: Why are we blindly letting this happen?
Primarily, other countries aren't doing anything because it's not an international issue. Countries have the sovereign right to do whatever they want into their own borders. The Ukraine war, for example involves the invasion of one country by another, which is why other countries are taking action.
Internal issues are traditionally dealt with internally. Sure, people may speak out against actions like this, but they're going to go to war, even economic war over them. I think a better question would be why the Chinese people are letting this happen. The Chinese government tries to seem all-powerful, but they're not. They are in fact kept in place by the very people who are being oppressed. Oppressive regimes always collapse under their own weight eventually and this is just hastening that.
Re: Why are we blindly letting this happen?
Don't forget that "the West" invaded China, and specifically, carved out Shanghai out of it as its own private playground, and you know what it did for its local fellow humans' rights during the time it was in charge?
It made sure they didn't have any.
So having suggestions today about how China should run the place would be nice, but unfortunately, it would also very easily come out as rather hypocritical.
"There have allegedly been no deaths."
No deaths from COVID.
How many the Chinese Communist Party are responsible for is a different matter.
Re: "There have allegedly been no deaths."
How many the Chinese Communist Party are responsible for is a different matter.
You can google " dead donor rule china github " - that might answer your question...
The article omitted to talk about children, even those below the age of 5, being forcibly separated from their parents when they have COVID, and kept in dedicated hospitals, without enough nurses to care for them properly.
When I heard about that from Chinese friends, I found it so heartbreaking, I assumed it was the local government being overzealous and bungling it up, and expected somebody to get sacked and make some public apology.
However, I've since heard it's actually a central government policy that's been forced on the local government, which would point to some level of disagreement and power struggle between the two.
Why are we blindly letting this happen?
That is 25m people being subjected to cruel and unnecessary detention by their government.
Many millions more are suffering the same fate in other cities in China.
We in the west but so much rat from China, why are we not pushing sanctions on them to stop this abhorrent behaviour towards their ‘citizens’?
Does the plight of these fellow humans not matter to those of us in the so called ‘west’?
We should not be furthering the economic fortunes of states that do not treat their citizens with basic human rights.