The RAE defines dystopia as a fictional representation of a future society that produces negative effects on human beings.
But the dystopia that the citizens of Shanghai are experiencing is very real and very present.
The Chinese government has been implementing what it calls its “zero covid cases” plan for more than three weeks since a new outbreak was detected in late March.
This means draconian restrictions for most of its 25 million inhabitants, who in fact They cannot leave their homes, and any supplies they need, from food to basic medicines, must be ordered from their homes.
To the psychological stress of not going out for weeks is added the shortage of delivery men, because they do not enjoy a special status: if they return home, they have to stay locked up. Being a delivery driver in Shanghai often means sleeping in your car or in a tent. Now that the local government has decided to reopen some businesses, it is very likely that employees will have to sleep away from home if they want to be able to return to work.
The most vulnerable, the elderly, low-income citizens, do not have as much access to the delivery service, due to lack of technological knowledge or lack of money, which is creating dramatic situations such as the elderly who die at home because it does not reach them your medication on time.
Chilling testimonies that elude censorship
Witnesses to these situations, hundreds of them, tell, when they can avoid censorship, the real struggle to access to products such as milk and eggs, how the economy is returning to bartering, or how drones controlled by local authorities “hunt” those who, in desperation, want to leave their homes by bypassing restrictions. Videos on social media show citizens being dragged home. They also count the unsanitary conditions, with no showers or toiletsof many of the quarantine centers, in which even minors enter alone, without their parents, or the elderly without assistance.
Discontent has grown to levels never seen before in this Chinese economic and financial hub, a city traditionally seen as apolitical. The censors are not enough to stop all the complaints on social networks, although the demonstrations are at bay due to the same conditions of confinement.
Which necessarily leads to the question of whether the “zero covid cases” policy is effective enough to justify such a restriction. And the answer is that everything points to no.
The “zero covid” strategy is in question…
The figures for infections and deaths reported by the Chinese government are so lacking in transparency that the data must be estimated. However, experts, including Chinese doctors whose work has been censored -such as Li Wenliang and Ai Feng-, point out that the reproduction rate of the omicron variant is six times higher than that of the Wuhan variant, so it is materially impossible. prevent people from getting infected just by resorting to lockdowns. The key would be vaccination.
The complacency of the Chinese authorities regarding their ability to control infections with this strategy has led them to neglect the vaccination rate. Many of their elders, even those with chronic illnesses, are not vaccinated. To this, it adds the lower efficacy of the Chinese vaccine with respect to those of Pfizer or Moderna.
…although China will persevere
The “zero covid” strategy comes directly from the Chinese politburo, from Xi Jingping, who is its great defender, who is seeking an unprecedented re-election at the 20th Communist Party Congress at the end of this year.
His strategy against covid cannot fail and Xi will put all his efforts into making it work, even if they are made up.
If the scientists are right and the lockdowns are not enough to stop omicron, many more Chinese cities could face more lockdowns by the end of the year, a more “zero covid” doctrine.
In addition to being ineffective, this strategy could end up weighing down the world economy already wounded by the war in Ukraine, and have a devastating effect, now that a large part of the world is already coming out of the pandemic or sees the light at the end of the tunnel.
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