China’s Covid lockdowns are so bad
People are fleeing the country.
But the Chinese Communist Party
Solved that problem
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Zero-Covid policy hasn’t gotten rid of Covid yet.
But it’s doing a good job at getting rid of people’s desire to stay in China.
Foreign expats are fleeing.
But China’s not making it easy for people to leave. Even for foreigners,
who usually have the easiest time getting out.
“Right now, expats who want to escape Shanghai typically need consular assistance,
approval from community leaders to get extra non-government Covid tests,
a registered driver to take them to the airport, and a ticket on a rare flight out.”
Also, they have to promise they won’t come back.
Although for people who are leaving, that’s probably not hard to do right now.
“I’m really going to miss my one-bedroom prison cell, I mean apartment.”
It’s not just foreigners who want to leave China.
Wealthy Chinese are also voting with their feet.
The only kind of voting they’ve ever been able to do.
And middle-class Chinese are trying to go abroad, too.
The Chinese Communist Party doesn’t like this. And it’s making it harder to leave.
I’ll tell you how a little later in this episode.
But if you’re thinking of leaving China right now,
the Communist Party has a message for you: why the big rush?
Relax, Shanghai is going to return to normal life in June!
You know, normal life.
With all of the temporary quarantine hospitals that are now permanent instead.
And all of the new permanent Covid testing stations.
Within a 15-minute walk at all times.
Where you have to take a test to go into a grocery store or use public transportation.
These are totally normal Covid testing stations.
That are not haunted.
Sure, even after lockdown there are still going to be some walls and fences around. But you’ll adapt!
See? People are adapting!
This fire truck probably didn’t need to get to the fire that quickly anyway.
But the important thing is, Shanghai is definitely
reopening. And everything is going to go back to normal.
Look at all these flowers they’re planting! It’s going to look great
when the Chinese Communist Party does all of their “yay we beat Covid” propaganda.
The thing is, Shanghai residents aren’t buying it.
Here’s a viral video of some residents going off at government
workers who are taking pictures to “celebrate” the end of lockdown.
The man keeps yelling, “Is the lockdown over? No! Why are you lying?”
Last week in Shanghai, people started being let out of their apartment complexes.
Until they were suddenly locked down again.
A brief taste of freedom, and then more lockdown.
Although to be fair, some people still haven’t been allowed outside.
And these people got a whole 28 minutes of reopening!
That’s almost enough time to actually leave your apartment. Along with all of the other
thousands of people trying to leave your apartment at the exact same time.
But the Chinese regime doesn’t care about the inconsistent reopening.
The Communist Party will celebrate Shanghai reopening even if it’s still locked down.
Because the Party only needs the appearance of reopening to declare victory.
Like these lovely flowers.
More after the break.
Welcome back.
Chinese authorities have made it pretty hard for people to travel
to China since the beginning of the pandemic.
Remember when thousands of Chinese citizens were stranded overseas because their own
government wouldn’t let them back in? They were told to stay away in case they could
bring the coronavirus back to China. And now, as more and more people want
to leave China, the Chinese Communist Party is strictly limiting citizens from going abroad.
It’s part of their Zero-Covid policy.
“Chinese citizens were already advised to avoid all non-essential travel,
but the latest announcement suggests a greater degree of strictness in border control.”
Of course like with many of China’s announcements, it’s not clear how this is going to be enforced.
Probably unevenly though, because that’s how the CCP rolls.
There are already some signs though that aren’t good.
Last year, Chinese authorities already restricted passports. They’re only issuing
or renewing them for people who can prove they have to travel for school or business.
“In the first six months of 2021,
China issued 335,000 passports—just 2% of the number during the same period in 2019.”
Even if you already have a passport, you also now need an exit permit to leave China.
Which they are now going to more strictly regulate.
And you might not have a passport for much longer.
There have been reports of Chinese border police clipping people’s passports to make them invalid.
Some people have had their passports clipped when returning to China.
But others are getting theirs clipped when they try to leave.
Back in April, police in some areas of Hunan province were confiscating people’s passports,
promising to return them “when the pandemic is over.”
This order was allegedly going to be rolled out nationwide.
We haven’t seen that happen yet. And there would probably be a huge backlash if it were.
It might be easier for Chinese authorities to just keep denying people exit permits.
But the reports of people having their passports clipped or denied is pretty alarming.
Although in a way, this makes sense. In a twisted, authoritarian kind of way. Chinese
people already had pretty strict movement controls within China due to the Zero Covid policy.
This was the scene last week at one of Shanghai’s biggest train stations. Most of these are migrant
workers who have been trying to leave Shanghai since the lockdown, because they have no jobs
anymore. But they weren’t able to leave Shanghai for their hometowns until now.
And with this new policy,
the Chinese Communist Party can turn the entire country into a quarantine camp.
But this isn’t just about Zero Covid. I’ll tell you more after the break.
Welcome back. China is tightening its ban on international travel.
As one Chinese internet user joked, “don’t go out unless necessary,
don’t leave the country unless necessary, don’t be born unless necessary.”
I don’t doubt that Chinese leader Xi Jinping
is paranoid about having a major Covid outbreak in China this year.
But this isn’t just about Zero Covid. Like everything with the
Chinese Communist Party, it’s about control.
The Chinese Communist Party has been closing off to the world
over the last two years. I’m not saying they’re going to turn into North Korea.
They’re still trying to flex their power around the world,
especially with bringing smaller countries under their influence.
But they’re going to control access to China. They want to be desired, but hard to get to.
There’s only one thing they’re really afraid of: capital flight.
Chinese authorities are stopping Chinese people from being able to get their money out of China.
And that means the Communist Party is also afraid of foreign businesses leaving China.
Because they’re afraid of foreign money leaving China.
The Chinese regime is going to be rolling out a lot of propaganda
about how great it is doing business in China.
And some people are going to keep falling for it. Because they’re idiots.
But this is a dangerous gamble for the Chinese Communist Party. Will they be able to close down
China but keep foreign investors pumping money into their system?
Do they overestimate how much the rest of the world needs China?
We’ll have to wait and see.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army,
fans who contribute as little as a dollar per episode on the crowd funding website Patreon
Or our exclusive social media platform on Locals.
Today’s question comes from...
Reisenweber, who asks: can things really change there? the surveillance state is
everywhere but it seems people are so done with restrictions.
He was commenting on this video I posted on Locals that allegedly showed a stampede at a mall in
China after someone’s Covid passport turned red. Basically everyone was worried they’d get locked
in the mall or sent to a quarantine camp, so it turned into a stampede and people were injured.
Yes, Reisenweber, I do believe that things can change in China.
That’s a big reason I do this show. But I don’t think we’re at the point right
now where Covid lockdowns will cause a mass uprising in China.
The Chinese regime is smart about some things. Like compartmentalizing the lockdowns
so that only certain cities are locked down, or only certain areas in each city.
Things have been terrible in Shanghai for months,
but they’re fine now in Xi’an. When things were locked down in Xi’an, they were fine in Shanghai.
This gives the Party a release valve to let off pressure. It makes it seem like if people just
behave, they’ll eventually get out of lockdown and everything will be fine. And even if people do get
upset and protest, they’ll protest against local officials and not the ruling Party.
What these lockdowns are doing though is disillusioning people’s belief in the Party.
Especially for middle class and upper class Chinese people, like the ones in Shanghai.
Now they understand how authoritarian the system is, and how it actually affects their own lives.
Someday the Chinese Communist Party will fall. And I think when we look back,
we’ll see that the Covid lockdowns contributed to their downfall. But not immediately.
Thanks for your question.
And if you want to join the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army and help us take on the Chinese regime,
head on over to our exclusive social media platform on Locals.
That’s chinauncensored.locals.com
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.