The COVID lockdown in China’s biggest city, Shanghai, hasn’t been going exactly according to plan. This week on Sinica, we speak with our business editor Chang Che, who flew back to Shanghai in early March and emerged from quarantine just in time for “dynamic clearing.” He gives us a first-hand look at the scramble for basic food and offers his take on China’s vaunted state capacity, the role of neighborhood committees in implementing central government policy, what went so badly wrong in Shanghai, and what lessons might be learned for the next Chinese city that sees an Omicron outbreak.
2:38 – Chang’s experience of the lockdown
7:46 – The current mood in Shanghai
11:02 – Neighborhood Committees: the foot soldiers of pandemic prediction
14:00 – Explaining the relatively low rate of vaccination among the elderly in Shanghai
18:47 – The case for locking down Shanghai, and how they might have done it better
31:01 – The reputational damage to China
33:31 – Schadenfreude
41:04 – Why a state that can test 26 million in a day can’t keep people fed
A transcript of this podcast is available on TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations:
Chang: Tokyo Vice on HBO Max
Kaiser: The National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia
