Reuters: Hacker Claims to Have Stolen 1 Billion Records of Chinese Citizens From Police. “A hacker has claimed to have procured a trove of personal information from the Shanghai police on one billion Chinese citizens, which tech experts say, if true, would be one of the biggest data breaches in history.”
BuzzFeed News: WeChat Became The Platform For Shanghai Residents To Speak Out About China’s Zero-COVID Policy. “A six-minute video posted on Chinese social media platform WeChat painted a harrowing timeline of what was happening inside Shanghai during the city’s latest strict COVID lockdown. After the video went viral, it was taken down by government censors. It got reposted, then taken down again. And again, and again.”
New York Times: China’s Covid Lockdown Outrage Tests Limits of Triumphant Propaganda. “Anger and anxiety over the Shanghai lockdown, now in its fourth week, has posed a rare challenge for China’s powerful propaganda apparatus, which is central to the Communist Party’s ability to stifle dissent. As the Omicron variant continues to spread across the country, officials have defended their use of widespread, heavy-handed lockdowns. They have pushed a triumphalist narrative of their Covid response, which says that only the Chinese government had the will to confront, and hold back, the virus. But among a populace with growing evidence of the costs of that approach, an alternate story — of rage, frustration and despair — is finding an audience.”
Zee News: Fourth wave scare: Shanghai now using metal barriers to block off streets to control Covid-19 spread. “Shanghai’s new tool in its fight against Covid-19 that induced some rigorous pandemic measures as part of China’s zero Covid policy is metal barriers. Volunteers and low-level government workers are using metal and steel barriers to block off small streets and entrances to apartment complexes, PTI reported.”
Ars Technica: Shanghai’s plan to reboot the supply chain will hit workers the hardest. “…the central government in Beijing has made it a priority to restart Shanghai’s industrial sector. Liu He, the Chinese vice premier, announced this week that the government would aim to stabilize the country’s supply chain by helping 666 companies in COVID-ravaged Shanghai reboot their operations. Doing that while the city continues to battle China’s worst COVID outbreak since the pandemic began may prove an enormous challenge—and may not succeed in curbing the disruption that the global supply chain could feel for weeks or months to come.”
New York Times: Shanghai’s Low Covid Death Toll Revives Questions About China’s Numbers. “By the numbers, Shanghai has been an exemplar of how to save lives during a pandemic. Despite the city’s more than 400,000 Covid-19 infections, just 17 people have died, according to officials, statistics they have touted as proof that their strategy of strict lockdowns and mass quarantines works. But those numbers may not give a complete picture of the outbreak’s toll.”
BBC: China Covid: Clashes in Shanghai over lockdown evictions. “Millions are confined to their homes as Shanghai battles a fresh outbreak of the virus. Anyone who tests positive is placed in quarantine. But with more than 20,000 new cases a day, authorities are struggling to find enough space.”
New York Times: Shanghai’s food crisis prompts residents in Beijing to stockpile supplies.. “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.”
The Register: Locked-in and hungry, Shanghai residents can’t complain online. “The 25 million plus residents of the Chinese city of Shanghai are being warned not to spread rumors online or to complain about conditions during ongoing and strict COVID-19 lockdowns imposed since March 28. The Shanghai office of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) warned citizens against spreading misinformation in an announcement on Friday after rumors started appearing on WeChat that armed police would take over the city, and bulk communal buying of food would be outlawed.”
ABC News (Australia): Social media videos show ‘riots’ over food as Chinese city Shanghai enters third week of strict lockdown. “Small ‘riots’ have broken out in Shanghai as residents who have been confined in their homes for two weeks show their frustration at China’s strict ‘COVID-zero’ policy. The city has been under lockdown since March 28 and, with supermarkets shut and deliveries restricted, there have been increasing reports of residents unable to access bare necessities.”
The Mainichi: Japanese people living in Shanghai stressed over COVID-19 lockdown. “People affiliated with Japan’s Gunma Prefecture who reside in Shanghai have been facing difficulties amid the Chinese city’s COVID-19 lockdown. Toru Dobashi, director of the Gunma Shanghai Office, told the Mainichi Shimbun that he has been subjected to continuous restrictions from April 1, and has been unable to go out even though he has received no rations of food and other daily necessities.”
New York Times: Many Shanghai residents say Covid lockdown measures have caused food shortages.. “Before Guan Zejun’s apartment block was locked down on March 27, he bought enough noodles and bread to last a week. He figured that if he ran out, he could always order in. After all, this was Shanghai. Soon afterward, however, the authorities locked down the whole city of 26 million in a bid to contain China’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began. On Friday, Mr. Guan, a 31-year-old programmer, posted a picture on the social media platform Weibo of his nearly empty box of supplies and pleaded for government help.”
Straits Times: Shanghai tests 26 million residents in one day under extended lockdown. “Shanghai said it would continue with a lockdown as it reviews results of a massive exercise on Monday (April 4) to test all 26 million of its residents, in China’s largest public health response since the initial days of the pandemic. This is the first time that the city has ordered all residents to be tested since the current outbreak started in early March.”
Business Insider: A robot dog issuing COVID-19 safety instructions is roaming the streets of locked down Shanghai. “A robot dog is being used to bark COVID-19 safety measures in Shanghai, China. With a loudspeaker strapped to its back, the robodog tells residents in the city’s Jiading district to ‘wear a mask, wash hands frequently, and check your temperature,’ amid COVID-19 restrictions, The Times report.”
Associated Press: Hong Kong urges testing, Shanghai struggles under lockdown. “Hong Kong authorities on Saturday asked the entire population of more than 7.4 million people to voluntarily test themselves for COVID-19 at home for three days in a row starting next week. The announcement by Chief Executive Carrie Lam came as the southern Chinese city is struggling to contain its worst outbreak with authorities sending mixed signals about testing and lockdowns.”
The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.
Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.