Over the weekend, videos of Shanghai residents arguing or arguing with workers and police in protective suits while forcibly taken to government quarantine were widely circulated on Chinese social media. Many have since been removed from censorship after sparking public outrage.
The outrage comes as authorities appear to have withdrawn efforts to ease restrictions in parts of the city, despite declining new infections, as local officials come under pressure to limit the virus’s transmission to the community.
Under the new hardline policies, even residents with negative Covid tests could be placed in centralized government quarantine. According to social media posts and local government reports circulating online, entire apartment blocks in several parts of the city are considered a health risk, with all residents forced to leave their homes and quarantined on the back of a positive case.
A viral video shows residents arguing with police officers who showed up at their doors in protective suits to quarantine them after someone else on the floor gave them a positive test.
“From now on, people who live on the same floor (as in the case of Covid) must be transported (in quarantine),” a police officer said in the video.
“Not that you can do whatever you want – unless you’re in America. This is China, “said another police officer sternly, waving a bottle of disinfectant in his hand. “Stop asking me why. You’re welcome. We must abide by our country’s regulations and policies to control the epidemic. “
CNN could not confirm on its own that such a policy had been issued, and asked the Shanghai municipal government for clarification. CNN has not been able to identify the people who shot the video and do not know if they were later quarantined.
According to online reports, some neighborhoods have imposed so-called “periods of silence” lasting two or three days, during which residents are not allowed to leave their homes. These residents are also temporarily barred from ordering food and daily necessities online, leading to renewed fears of food shortages.
The escalation was followed by the personal intervention of Xi, who on Thursday released what many interpreted as a threat to opponents of Zero Covid’s policy, making it clear that he would not tolerate “actions that distort, doubt or deny Our country’s policies to prevent the epidemic. “
He also called on officials to demonstrate a “thorough, complete and comprehensive understanding” of the policy and warned them against “inadequate information, insufficient training and insufficient work” in its implementation.
Hours after Xi’s speech, the Communist Party Municipal Committee in Shanghai met on Thursday night to study his instructions. And at a news conference Sunday, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said the city was at a “critical time” to control the outbreak.
“It’s like sailing against the current in a boat; we must move forward or be pushed downstream. We should not relax or lose weight, “said Zhao Dandan, the commission’s deputy director. Zhao also promised to “resolutely comply with the” take everyone who needs to be accepted “and” quarantine everyone who needs to be quarantined “requirement to” stop the spread of the epidemic in the community as soon as possible. “
Tight quarantine requirements have led to despair among many residents of the financial center, millions of whom have been severely blocked for more than six weeks.
Tong Zhiwei, a law professor at East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, condemned such measures as unconstitutional in a widely circulated social media essay.
“Any action that forcibly sends residents to centralized quarantine is illegal and must stop immediately,” Tong wrote.
“A state of emergency is a legal status and can only exist after a legitimate organization declares it according to the constitution; it absolutely cannot be arbitrarily decided or recklessly announced by any institution or official, “Tong wrote.
Around the same time, Liu Dali, a Shanghai-based financial lawyer at a leading Chinese law firm, wrote a public letter urging the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress, the city’s legislature, to propose measures to protect citizens’ rights against the epidemic. measures such as forced quarantine.
Screenshots of the two letters were deleted from the Chinese Internet after attracting widespread attention. On Chinese Twitter, similar to Weibo, Tong’s verified account has been banned from posting since Monday. A hashtag with his name is also censored.
With subtle sarcasm, some Internet users shared a 2015 article in the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, quoting Xi months after taking the helm of the party in 2012: “No organization or individual has the privilege of being above the constitution and the law. Any act that violates the constitution and the law must be investigated and reported. “
When the post began to circulate, users were soon greeted with a blatant message that “content has been removed by the author.”
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