Advertisement China’s massive information control apparatus is typically focused on distorting the information that Chinese citizens are able to access about their own country, with foreign affairs relegated to a secondary level of importance. Yet over the past seven weeks, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership’s apparent decision to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin in his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has fueled a full-blown campaign to shape public opinion and internet chatter about events unfolding thousands of miles away. Within the deep toolbox of controls available to the CCP…
Month: April 2022
Why China Isn’t Backing Away From Alignment With Russia
Advertisement China claims to be neutral in Russia’s war in Ukraine, but this neutrality is easy to see through: Beijing refuses to criticize Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and it blames the United States and NATO for inciting the war. So far, the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for A New Era” between Russia and China, concluded in 2019 and re-affirmed during the most recent bilateral summit on February 4, has held fast throughout the war. But does this partnership have “no limits,” as Presidents Xi and…
Will China’s zero-Covid policy bring the world’s factory grinding to a halt?
A top Huawei executive has broken ranks to warn that China’s stringent zero-Covid policy may trigger “massive losses” for the tech industry, putting the country’s economy as well as the global supply chain at greater risk. “If Shanghai cannot resume production by May, all of the tech and industrial players who have supply chains in the area will come to a complete halt, especially the automotive industry,” Richard Yu Chengdong, head of Huawei’s consumer and auto division said in a WeChat post. “That will pose severe consequences and massive losses…
Faced With a Changed Europe, China Sticks to an Old Script
When European leaders recently pressed China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, to distance himself from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, he doggedly stuck to prepared remarks for the video summit, shutting down any opening for their demands. Speaking from the grandiose Great Hall of the People, he declared that China, as it had for years, welcomed the European Union as a pillar of an emerging multipolar world. But Mr. Xi also made clear that cajoling China about Russia was not the kind of assertiveness that he wanted. Their talks were…
Shanghai residents forced from homes clash with police over Covid policy
Video footage shared on social media have shown residents of Shanghai scuffling with hazmat-suited police who were forcing them to surrender their homes for coronavirus quarantine facilities, in a sign of rising discontent in the city. Shanghai, a megacity with a population of 25 million and China’s key financial hub, has been experiencing the country’s biggest outbreak since Covid-19 was first reported in Wuhan over two years ago. The outbreak has prompted criticism of local authorities, and is proving a major test of Beijing’s commitment to its stringent zero-Covid policy.…
Shanghai lockdown: How angry netizens test China’s ‘Great Firewall’
As millions of people continue to stay at home under strict lockdown in Shanghai, videos appearing to show their desperation and frustration have surfaced and gone viral. Usually such clips would not get past China’s censors, known as the ‘Great Firewall’. But the sheer volume of the clips has made it difficult for censors to keep up. Many are also being passed around in private group chats, which has made them harder to catch. BBC
Police in hazmat suits scuffle with people in Shanghai – video
Police in hazmat suits were filmed grabbing screaming Shanghai residents in a video circulated on Chinese social media on Thursday. Users of the Chinese microblogging site Weibo claimed that local authorities had decided to take over several residential buildings in Zhangjiang county in Pudong district to quarantine Covid patients. Videos show residents kneeling on the ground, begging the police not to take them away, and dozens of officers scuffling with civilians and dragging some of them to the middle of the street The Guardian
China’s Widespread Lockdowns Will Bring an Economic Toll
Nearly 400 million people are estimated to be under some form of lockdown in China as officials try to stop a fast-moving Omicron outbreak that is beginning to weigh on the world’s second-largest economy. Hundreds of thousands of people have been sent to isolation facilities in China, and millions more have been told to stay in their homes. Officials in dozens of cities have shut down normal daily life across the country in a race to track and trace the coronavirus and stamp out China’s worst outbreak since the start…
Shanghai Lockdown Diary
Advertisement Xujiahui, Shanghai, April 14 — It’s now two weeks since Shanghai was locked down. I could hardly have imagined that this city would ever become as it is today. On the first day, a Friday morning, downtown looked like this: nearly completely empty of either cars or foot traffic, with only a couple of cyclists moving on the streets. (I would love to find the person who’s playing the erhu in the distance and say thanks – he’s been doing so daily since the first day.) Our building’s lockdown…
Shanghai’s Food Crisis Prompts Beijing Residents to Stock Up
Some Beijing residents have started stockpiling food in their homes in case the city imposes a lockdown, after seeing reports of food shortages and even street fights over food during a lockdown in Shanghai. Liu Chang, a 29-year-old Beijing resident who lives with his girlfriend, has stocked enough food to last three months. He is worried about possible shortages as well as price gouging in the coming months. “No matter which city it is, there will be concerns like this,” he said. “I have never experienced famine, but I have…