‘Input only. No way out: ‘Beijing sees more COVID lockdowns as anger grows in Shanghai

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, April 29 (Reuters) – China’s capital Beijing closed more businesses and residential complexes on Friday, and authorities stepped up contact tracing to contain a COVID-19 outbreak, as resentment over the lockdown grew. a month in Shanghai.

In the financial hub, fenced-in people have been protesting the closure and difficulties getting supplies by banging pots and pans at night, according to a Reuters witness and residents.

A video shared on social media, the authenticity of which could not be immediately verified, showed a woman warning people through a megaphone not to do so, saying such gestures were being encouraged by “outsiders”.

The Shanghai government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In Beijing, authorities were in a race against time to detect COVID cases and isolate those around them.

A sign posted outside a residential complex read “Entrance only. No exit.”

Polish resident Joanna Szklarska, 51, was sent to a quarantine hotel as a close contact but refused to share the room, which had only one bed, with her neighbour.

They sent her back home, where the authorities installed an alarm on the front door. They then called her back to the hotel, where she now has her own room.

“Nothing makes sense here,” the English-speaking consultant said over the phone.

At a regular news conference on Friday, Chinese health officials did not respond to questions about whether Beijing will go into lockdown or what circumstances might prompt such measures.

The severe restrictions in China have seemed surreal in many parts of the world where people have chosen to live with the virus.

And the frequent signs of frustration among citizens will be uncomfortable for China’s ruling Communist Party, especially as President Xi Jinping is expected to win a third leadership term this fall.

Nomura estimates that 46 cities are currently in full or partial lockdown, affecting 343 million people. Societe Generale estimates that provinces experiencing significant mobility restrictions account for 80% of China’s economic output.

New COVID cases in Beijing remain in the dozens, officials said Friday, a far cry from Shanghai’s numbers.

In Beijing’s Chaoyang district, the first to undergo mass testing this week, the latest of three rounds of screening began on Friday among its 3.5 million residents. Most other districts are due to conduct their third round of testing on Saturday.

More apartment blocks were sealed off, preventing residents from leaving, and certain spas, KTV rooms, gyms, cinemas and libraries and at least two shopping malls closed on Friday.

People who had recently visited places in areas declared by authorities as “at risk” have received text messages telling them to stay put until they get their test results.

“Hello citizens! You recently visited the braised chicken and beef noodle shop in Guanghui Li community,” read one such text. “Report to your resort or hotel immediately, stand still and wait for notification of the nucleic acid test.”

“If you violate the above requirements and cause the epidemic to spread, you will bear the legal responsibility.”

The Labor Day break from April 30 to May 4 is one of the busiest tourist seasons in China, and the travel industry is making a loss. read more

Companies reopening factories in Shanghai are booking hotel rooms to house workers and turning empty workshops into on-site isolation facilities, as authorities urge them to resume work under COVID restrictions. read more

Many foreigners want to flee the most cosmopolitan city in mainland China. read more

In response to COVID and other headwinds, China will step up political support for the economy, a top Communist Party decision-making body said on Friday, lifting shares (.CSI300), (.SSEC) from recent lows of two years. read more

Details were scant, but markets reacted to a shift in messaging away from a single focus on COVID, analysts say.

“Now the goal is to balance outbreak containment and economic growth,” said Zhiwei Zhang, president of Pinpoint Asset Management, who expects China’s economy to contract in the second quarter.

“This suggests that the government can fine-tune the ‘zero tolerance’ policy to allow some flexibility.”

Chinese authorities say fighting COVID is vital to saving lives.

“The battle against the COVID epidemic is a war, a war of resistance, a people’s war,” said Liang Wannian, head of the National Health Commission’s COVID response panel.

In Shanghai, authorities said more people have been gradually allowed to leave their homes in principle recently. More than 12 million, nearly half the population, now fall into that category. read more

Still, many are unable to leave their compounds, while those who can have few places to go as shops and other venues are closed. Often, one of the 52,000 police mobilized for confinement asks them to return home.

Many residents have complained about inflexible policing, which sometimes fails to take into account health emergencies or other individual circumstances.

“Some individual policemen… are emotional or mechanical,” Shu Qing, head of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, told reporters, admitting “shortcomings.”

Reporting from Martin Quin Pollard, Eduardo Baptista, David Stanway, Brenda Goh, Tony Munroe, Roxanne Liu, Albee Zhang, Wang Yifan, and the Beijing and Shanghai offices; Written by Marius Zaharia; Edited by Lincoln Feast and Simon Cameron-Moore

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