Zhengzhou officials mocked for ‘out-of-touch’ remarks about lockdowns

Some of the more than 10 million residents in Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan Province, criticized the government as being out of touch after an official made a remark about COVID lockdowns during a press conference on Thursday.

A group of senior officials from various arms of the local government said that a COVID-19 outbreak that began in early October stemmed from “an imported case,” a truck driver. The officials called for citizens’ cooperation to stop the spread of the virus, and suggested COVID prevention methods, including avoiding public transportation, wearing masks, and routinely disinfecting high-touch surfaces at home. Thrown in the mix was a recommendation about food delivery choices. “Don’t order takeout of cold food,” a health expert at the briefing said.

The suggestion is not entirely groundless, as some studies have shown that cooked, warm food is less likely to carry viruses. But the remark still touched off a torrent of criticism from Zhengzhou residents who said that the suggestion was not workable as food delivery services have completely ground to a halt under the city’s strict COVID controls.

“When I ask when I can start ordering takeout, you tell me not to get cold dishes. When I ask when I’m allowed to go out, you tell me to leave my shoes at the door when I come home,” a Weibo user wrote, highlighting local officials’ reluctance to give direct answers to people’s lockdown-related questions. “I will follow the order, but could I have some warm meals delivered to my door?” another person quipped.

The controversial comment has also made the phrase Don’t order cold food (别点凉菜 bié diǎn liángcài) go viral on social media, with a meme sarcastically saying that the suggestion was proof of Zhengzhou officials’ “thoughtfulness and care for their people.”

Zhengzhou, the capital of China’s Henan Province and home to more than 10 million people, has been placed under partial lockdown since early October, despite reported case numbers in Hunan hovering around 20–30 daily, most of which are non-symptomatic and mild.

Earlier this week, hundreds of workers fled a Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou to avoid a COVID lockdown that they said had led to inadequate food and a lack of other necessities in the facility. Their exodus from the factory, which typically accounts for as much as 85% of iPhone assembly capacity, made international headlines after videos and images of panicked workers climbing over fences and lugging suitcases on the highway went viral on the Chinese internet, drawing attention not only to their mistreatment, but also to the COVID situation outside the plant.

For now, it still remains a mystery how many of Zhengzhou’s residents are enduring home confinement. At Thursday’s meeting, local officials stressed that a citywide lockdown never occurred and would remain off the table, adding that those who spread rumors about it would be held accountable. It’s also said that the government had lifted COVID restrictions for 3,899 out of 6,398 residential compounds in Zhengzhou, as part of its incremental plan to restore full normalcy across the city.

But the information was met with widespread skepticism on Chinese social media, where people who claimed to be in Zhengzhou said that movement restrictions were still in place for the vast majority of the city and there’s no end in sight. They also advised people outside Zhengzhou to always take official statements about its COVID response with a grain of salt, as local authorities have been accused previously of faking scenes of business resumption when reporters and senior officials visited the city, in an act that has been termed as “performative lockdown lifting.”