Reading · What would you say if you could?

Hello friends,

Today marks:
Entirety of Shanghai lockdown day #13
My community lockdown day #26

Despite being on lockdown for almost two weeks, with no movement allowed outside of households, the # of Covid cases continue to rise. Today, there was a record high number of 24,000 new cases.

How are people in isolated quarantine still continuing to test positive? The public have arrived at the ironic conclusion that transmission of the virus is due to the near daily covid testing.

I have done 14 covid tests so far since lockdown, and there are two types: take-home self tests, or public community testing.

All the liquids that show up negative on take home covid test kits, including the first one which is un-sampled

child with sign on back: helping two people line up, my sister is taking online classes, grandma is unwell, thank you

FYI 🐑🐑🐑🐑 the sheep (yang) which is homonym for positive (yang) has become the de facto symbol of testing positive.

Irony on top of irony….we are asked to keep testing UNTIL there is a positive case in the compound. Which leads to creating positive cases. Because it is mix-testing, sometimes in groups of ten or twenty, if there happens to be a positive case, the crowded testing can lead to infecting the whole group.

It happened to my friend, who tested negative for many days until there was a positive result in her group of ten. Then, her group kept getting tested together, again and again, until the positive case ended up infecting her as well.

Shanghai is split in half by a river: East and West. Pudong (East of Huangpu River) only had 4hrs of notice before going into lockdown, while Puxi (west of Huangpu River) had 4 days.

internet joke: 4HRS VS 4 DAYS — Pudong residents only getting 4 hrs to rush for food, versus 4 days for Puxi shows all the gov. leaders live in Puxi

Ironically, ironically, because of the 4 hours of notice — people all rushed to the grocery store to hoard food. The groceries were packed, opening past midnight. Which of course led to a mass spreading of COVID.

from below: Lockdown zone, control zone, and precaution zone

My community was finally declared a precaution zone today, which theoretically means we are allowed to wander outside, though there are no shops open. Absurdly, streets that happen to cross over districts are fenced off so you cannot cross onto the other side. And yet, my community comes with a unique Chinese linguistic legal twist: “precaution zones” within my district will be treated the same as lockdown zones….

People are desperate, many without fresh food or water.

When some began shouting protests out their windows, demanding supplies in one Shanghai neighborhood, according to the Washington Post, a drone flew by and warned them to stop, and to please “control the soul’s desire for freedom.”

Not to mention the disastrous effect on the entire Chinese economy—Shanghai being the commercial capital of the country:

The Chinese national income will fall 4% with one-month lockdown in Shanghai (Financial Times), and the country’s quarterly GDP could be set back by 10% (Everbrite security)— raising questions over whether China can hit its lowest annual gross domestic product (GDP) target since 1991.

At the same time, commodity prices have skyrocketed, especially food. For example, cucumbers that used to cost 5 RMB/kg (0.79USD), now cost 40 RMB/kg (6.28USD). 100 yuan (~$16) can only buy you this much vegetables:

100 RMB (16USD) worth of potatoes, carrots, scallion, peppers, leafy veggies

Now, we have inevitably entered the economic phase from lacking to thriving barter economy/ black market trade.

Has Shanghai entered the second stage of planned economy? From extreme scarcity to the initial establishment of a black market, consumers bear extremely high premiums, and those who are assigned power and scarce goods make excessive profits. Such a large social experiment, people who study experimental economics will wake up from their dreams laughing.

The most sought-after commodity? Coca-cola.

A can of coke = 3 veggies = 5 eggs = 2 batteries = 5 rolls of toilet paper. Pepsi can trade for nothing.

Coca-cola is “hard” currency.

But note: only Coca-cola, not Pepsi.

JD was known as the fastest and most popular online shopping delivery service in China. During Shanghai lockdown, when all delivery services failed, JD stepped in and said it was collaborating with the government to ensure their storages re-open. They said unlike their competitors, they have their own logistics system.

On 4/9, JD live-streamed to show their products available for purchase and spread this info far and wide online to a desperate Shanghai. millions of users ordered food through the app, which promised a delivery in 1-2 days. Many ate their remaining rations thinking more food was coming, including my friends, who put off trying to order from other platforms.

However, everyday JD updated their delivery times. Everyday, it delayed the shipping date, until finally, now it just says food will be delivered 4/22. (JD also had massive layoffs recently, which they called "graduation" instead of layoffs)

However, JD's delivery workers are suffering. They are overworking all hours of the day, to get delayed packages out. They are eating and sleeping in warehouses, in impoverished conditions.

Many are speculating JD had no resources to actually ensure delivery at this time, and yet opened ordered to maintain its cash flow.

Also, apparently delivery workers who are able to take on private orders are able to make much more money than working for JD— as delivery workers hold the much sought after “travel pass.”

Party committee secretary of Shanghai Li Qiang visited residential blocks under lockdown with his entourage.

Prior to his visit, the community he was supposed to visit “rehearsed". A woman was supposed to go get a food package, another volunteer delivers food. All life in the community has to appear normal.

However, during his visit, Li Qiang asked to see the community across the street instead, which did not rehearse for his visit. Many residents flooded the gates and shouted profanities, saying please see OUR REAL situation.

resident yelling at party committee secretary Li Qiang

Li Qiang quietly accepted her opinions. The next day, that block got a much better rations of fresh food.

Also, prior to Li Qiang's visit to the residential blocks, the residential committees asked volunteers to seal household doors.

Emergency notice below on the day of Li Qiang’s visit: All Xu Hui residents will stay indoors and quiet all of 4/11.

Urgent notice: Notice from the neighborhood committee -- before 24:00 today, all residential blocks in Xuhui District will go in lockdown during the night, buildings with seals and buildings with positive cases within seven days will be locked at their gates or closed off with other physical tools. Security guards or volunteers will be sent. Residents in the entire district must stop all non-essential outings, strictly stay at home, and remain quiet for a day.

However, community volunteers refused to put seals on the doors. They said “we will no longer volunteer if we have to seal doors, because we would be ashamed.”

In the end, doors were not sealed.

Shanghai government built a physical stage by the bund, to livestream a morale boosting concert called “Collective hearts, Protecting Shanghai,” including many popular celebrities.

When news of the virtually-streamed concert was announced last night, Netizens protested vehemently.

Jokes abound about the performance content:
Intro: Party committee secretary Li Qiang kow-towing to the public
performance #1 : District leaders slapping each other
performance #2: Bao Shan leader (rumors are: he corrupted and sold their food rations to other districts) singing, “generosity of love”….

Today, it was announced the concert has been delayed…

Which resulted in more internet jokes:

Strongly suggesting turning the Pudong Communist Academy into a temporary hospital

Personally, I am shocked to see such critiques cloaked in blunt dark humor thriving in broad daylight. Internet jokes are usually extremely cloaked. And immediately censored. No one had dared, in recent memory, to post such raw critique.

This lockdown has unleashed a rare, collective anger. Going into lockdown, most people around me trusted the government to take care of them. But after such disastrous handling of the situation— with STILL NO ENDING IN SIGHT—even the most adamant fans of Xi (in my immediate circle) has turned against the state, and to the self-organized community around us.

Rather than being afraid of COVID these days, people are scared of being taken to the temporary hospitals, where conditions are disastrous.

It is raining today, and the makeshift shelters are leaking. (private showers, they joked):

Some makeshift hospitals are so hurriedly made, its occupants are sleeping in boxes.

While some Fang Cang (temporary) hospitals have poor living conditions, other stadium - turned hospitals appear to enjoy more freedom. A video circulating on Wechat shows occupants playing badminton and jogging.

Which sparked the question: Who are the actual ones locked in? Us at home, or the positive cases in government quarantine? What about the Shanghai college students who haven’t showered since their schools locked down 3 weeks ago? Or the delivery workers living out of warehouses?

students locked on campus are sleeping in classrooms

In lieu of the morale boosting concert that never happened, Party committee secretary Li Qiang also made his way to the Fang Cang hospitals, where they rehearsed songs with little red flags prior to his visit.

Reality continues to get more absurd everyday. So much more to share with you. See you tomorrow!

Love from Shanghai,

JinJin

P.S. I have enough food, don’t worry!

Disclaimer: Since official media is still reporting all is in order in Shanghai, the stories I am collecting here are anecdotal, or from my friend circles, or those shared on Wechat and Weibo— which is the main way people access “real” news. People spread them quickly before they are inevitably censored. I will try my best to verify and select trustworthy stories, but they are not all fact checked.

Thank you for reading What would you say if you could?. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Shanghai Lockdown Day #13: A visit from the party committee secretary

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