To think China is still locking down

[mumofgirl1]

Sorry if this has already be posted about I was just watching the local news and they where covering recent lockdowns in China I'm shocked they are still implementing lockdowns and wondered how there economy is coping nearly 3yrs down the line of lockdowns and what has happened to the vaccines over there have they not worked. It seems so strange when the rest of the world are coming out the other side of this and they are still putting local lockdowns in place surely they can't do this forever

@Figmentofmyimagination no I haven't that awful. To be honest I haven't really taken my notice of the news I've a 2yr old so the tv's usually on some form of kids tv and I've just sort of assumed that everywhere in the world had lifted there restrictions and come to the realisation that covid isn't going anywhere and we've just got to learn to live with it. I think that's why I was so shocked they was still locking down and no back to some sort of pre covid normality. Such a shame for the people of China to live like that still

@Isitsixoclockalready I'm not sure to be honest I didn't realise they was protesting I just caught abit of the news where they was saying about China lockdowns. It all seems so strange doesn't it

It's sad that politics comes before peoples freedom and lives

Random, but DS was showing me footage from the World Cup as seen by China compared to that seen by the rest of the world. They do not show (or they edit?) any crowd scenes so that they don't show crowds without masks.

It's like "The Great Leap Forward" all over again, and just as catestrophic for the population.

And so many people thought that if we'd locked down faster and harder like China, we'd be Covid-zero too 🙄

That would make sense I couldn't understand why if the rest of the world had seen enough success with there vaccines that we could return to pre-covid life why couldn't they return to some sort of normality and had to still result in covid lock downs. Wouldn't you of thought they would want to put a western vaccination program in place and move gradually back to normality

@Dacadactyl has got it spot on.

And yes, it is full control of population under the excuse of Covid.

What really worries me, is that the Chinese economy must be in free fall by now, we just don't know the extent of it.

Realistically, it would have started shrinking at some point. But in a sustainable way, hopefully.
Although, we could argue that nobody really knows if Chinese economy was ever as big as perceived.

Regardless, visible unrest in China is not good for anyone.

Why do people still think any kind of lock down is about covid. Everyone on earth has lived through covid and know its not the mega plague. Why can't people see what is happening right in the open? Anyone still bleating on about it is beyond hope.

Any kind of issue with it all and people blap on about microchips. Literally 5 people in the whole world thought that was a real thing. It's so depressing, it's like hardly anyone sees the big picture. Nobody is willing to look beyond the msm for fear of being "one of those people". Have you even watched the msm lately? I get a weekly dose via a friend and its frankly idiotic, patronising to a 10 year old. I watched odd spider man Jeremy vine demonstrating a mandolin in action for about 5 minutes the other week. A panel than talked for a very long time about the dangers of mandolins. Pressing issues 😬.

Everything is dumbed down, absurd and ridiculous. Look at the whole I'm a celeb thing. Absolute imbeciles defending the fucker. I have truly lost hope.

The economy has gone. 2008 provided enough warning to get cbdc's sorted. Many trials, coming down the pipeline. After 2008 and the mega quantitive easing, also the mega printing of trillions during covid, do people really thinks there is an organic market?

Its going to be a real shock when all this shit really gets going.

ok that was weird

One China resident said something astute, that the Chinese govt told its old people "We will protect everyone, You don't need to get vaccinated" : so they don't get it, they don't perceive that getting vaccn is in their own best interests. Just now on R4 someone pointed out that it's actually difficult to get the vacc in rural China, and people don't have family doctors so there's no relationship between a person & their regular health care worker.

I reckon there will be a new illness, more deadly. Hope I'm wrong.

More likely to freeze to death in a tent in the coming winter:

twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1597238144600244225

Their new skyscraper pig farms are surely a risk for viral mutations?

Wouldn't you of thought they would want to put a western vaccination program in place and move gradually back to normality

You'd think so wouldn't you. But I guess the party doesn't want to lose face by admitting their own vaccines are inferior....? Don't know if they are. A friend of mine had one - on a different continent - and neither of us have had Covid (unless asymptomatic).

I'm not surprised they are coming on to the streets. Must be unbearable to be locked up for so long.

Scary too though. Who knows how they will crack down. Tianamen square comes back to mind..... And this is country-wide.

Their vaccines are far less efficient than those used in the West but, fundamentally, this is about the Chinese Government being unable to admit that they got it wrong. Most Governments around the world now recognise that lockdowns were ineffective, with adverse unintended consequences. This fact, combined with effective vaccination programmes, have allowed them to remove all restrictions. But in a totalitarian regime like China, admitting such terrible mistakes will never happen, so they are in a perpetual cycle of outbreaks and lockdowns. So sad.

Oh, and saw a map of the world today cos I'm travelling soon and had to check where you still needed a covid test to enter. Nowhere in the world. The whole world map is green except China which showed up red. No entry.

That’s bloody awful

It’s a completely different country and so far away from the UK but I am very concerned for the people of china - this zero covid policy seems so unreasonable, impractical and very controlling.

Why can’t they just accept that there will be covid cases but try and promote the benefits of staying at home when sick, getting vaccinated, wearing masks etc? Rather than still enforcing lockdowns? And then reopen society so people can live normally.

I feel for those poor people. It’s just awful and not fair.

Life has never been fair in China. that was probably why my ancestors left 100 years ago. I once read that the survival rate on one of those ships bound for Southeast Asia was 30% and my great grandfather was a wealthy man (he went to Malaysia with enough money to buy land for a rubber plantation). It must have been pretty bad for him to leave. However people who have always lived there with no opportunity to leave know no better.

However the Chinese leaders forget that there have been many dynasties and every emperor was as repressive as Xi Jinping. In the past, they would have executed whole clans for one member's transgression and people still rebelled (when there was no food). We may have reached breaking point here.

Why they have not opened up- I suspect it is due to myopic decision making and detachment from the people. Xi Jinping was proud that he kept covid at bay so his pride prevents him from abandoning this strategy. The various local governments are set covid targets they have to fulfil. At the same time, they do not have the healthcare infrastructure to handle vast outbreaks without lots of deaths. They are not a first world country. They also have an aging population unlike other third world countries.

Much of my work is in China, and I work closely with people in Beijing. I agree, the lockdowns and failure to vaccinate is entirely about political control. I contemplate the life of my opposite number there daily - her life is so different to mine.

We know relatively little about everyday life in so much of China, because of the lack of meaningful media/social media. I find new areas of restriction with work constantly, and have to navigate around it. And yet it's there on the world stage, and our lives are filled with Made in China.

I think about it a lot, tbh.

This. The problem is both low % of pop vaccinated/boostered and the unwillingness of their gov't to change their covid policy.

This is not about Covid or vaccines. Western vaccines haven’t proved to be particularly effective against transmission hence the repeated boosters and many contracting Covid despite multiple jabs. It’s simply that in the west we’ve accepted that Covid is now endemic while the Chinese government are using the excuse of trying to get to Covid zero to put thumbscrews on the population.

They are a dictatorship, during the first wave of covid they boarded people into their apartments. They also have thousands of Muslims locked in concentration camps.
It's not surprising that people have had enough.

It's horrendous.

A friend of mine was sent there by work for a 2 week job and tested positive after a mandatory entrance test at the airport.

He didn't get the result until afterwards when he was settled into the hotel and had already started work. He was triple vaccinated and had no symptoms whatsoever.

He was put on an electronic tag and forced to move to an isolation hotel and remain in one room for ten days.

Hi OP! I’m working in China at the moment. The news is quite exaggerated. There are lockdowns, but it’s not like it was in the UK. For example, in the cities people live in apartment complexes - loads of buildings inside a huge complex. If there are outbreaks, the one building where the outbreak is will be ‘locked down’ for 3 days while the people are tested each day. Once they are given the all clear they are free to go.

Legally, they must receive full pay for the time that they are locked down. (I got fully paid during the lockdown I experienced and so did my colleagues.)

If the outbreak gets out of control, they will lock down a bigger area (I.e the whole complex will be asked to stay in for 3 days - or the whole district when numbers start to spiral. They test daily and if no more positive cases they are freed asap).

There is an outbreak in the city I live in but we aren’t locked down. I’m a teacher and there will be covid tests done 2-3 times a week for all teachers and students so we know it’s safe to work and no cases in the school. People wear masks a lot still (not in schools though, just on public transport and in supermarkets. Free to use bars and restaurants as normal mask-free).

It is false that you aren’t allowed to travel between cities. It’s absolutely fine to travel as normal, but yes, you will be asked to download an app on your phone which shows that you haven’t been in any ‘high risk’ areas immediately before travel. If you have, you are just asked to take a test prior to departure. The results are all uploaded onto the app too, and there are small test centres scattered about everywhere so you can just pop in when you need to use one.

The news is obviously focussing on the very negative side but the news here does the same about the UK and USA! Watch the news at home and you think China is awful; watch the news here and it’s exactly the same about home. You have to be aware that the media very much picks and chooses what they report on to ensure that the country they aren’t so fond of doesn’t look great and their own country looks superior in whatever aspect!

Vaccine-wise, the general consensus (and official advice here) is that the mRNA technology used to make the vaccines abroad (like in the UK, Europe, etc) is very dangerous. It’s interesting because their own research says the same that those accused of being ‘anti-vaxxers’ say in the UK. Their vaccine is different. It seems to be just as effective in that it minimises symptoms but doesn’t make it impossible to get or transmit the virus (as with the vaccines back home).

In general, people here don’t really mind. The lockdowns are very few and far between, and they’re usually very short. The majority of the people I have spoken to feel that the irritation of occasional lockdowns are worth it to keep the vulnerable safe from covid. A few people think it’s stupid but I’d say that those people are very much outnumbered by those who feel it’s positive to be cautious in this way. (I’d say only about 15% of my friends and colleagues are negative about it, the rest feel it is positive.)

We feel sorry for them in the UK but they too feel sorry for us so it’s a really interesting experience to witness both sides!

Anyone has any questions feel free to ask! 😊