Residents under Covid lockdowns around China are complaining of food and necessary item shortages.
In at least 30 locations, tens of millions of people have been told to remain at home due to partial or complete lockdowns.
One resident of western Xinjiang stated, “We’ve been out of flour, rice, and eggs for 15 days, and we’ve been out of milk for children for several days.”
Authorities are frantically attempting to contain local outbreaks before the Communist party’s October convention.
Even if only a couple of cases are documented, China’s zero-Covid policy demands stringent lockdowns. On Monday, 949 new Covid cases were reported in China.
The program has been criticized for limiting economic progress and eliciting rare vocal opposition from citizens.
During the weeks-long lockdown in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture on the border with Kazakhstan, citizens in Xinjiang have turned to social media for assistance.
One post displayed a video of an emotionally distraught Uyghur man explaining that his three children had not eaten for three days.
In Yining, the capital of Ili, an online document including more than 300 demands for food, medicine, and sanitary pads was extensively disseminated.
“I have no money to buy supplies. My wife is pregnant, and we have two children. We are out of gas, and my wife needs a medical checkup,” stated another local.
The region is inhabited by Han Chinese, Kazakh, and Uyghur individuals.
A long-awaited UN report released earlier this month accused China of “serious human rights breaches” against Uyghurs and other primarily Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. More than one million Uyghurs, according to rights groups, have been incarcerated against their will. Beijing asserts that its network of camps is a tool for combating terrorism.
In Guizhou province’s southwestern region, officials closed down a section of the provincial capital Guiyang without warning, stranding 500,000 inhabitants at home with no opportunity to prepare.
The Guardian stated that elevators were disabled to prevent people from fleeing buildings.
According to the Guardian, one user on the microblogging platform Weibo posed the question, “Is the government treating us like animals, or do they want us to die?
The capital of Sichuan province, Chengdu, is the largest metropolis to be under lockdown since Shanghai was restricted for two months earlier this year.
Its 21 million residents are prohibited from entering or leaving the city, and only those who can provide proof of a negative Covid test are permitted to leave to purchase needs.
It followed a severe heatwave in the region and an earthquake earlier this month, which left locals unable to escape their houses.
On Monday, according to city officials, limitations in five regions of the city will be lifted.
Multiple extended lockdowns precede the National Party Congress in mid-October, a once-every-five-years gathering at which key political figures will convene for the first time since the outbreak.
Even modest clusters of Covid are viewed as a threat by party leaders who are under intense pressure to ensure the event functions properly.
On Monday, Chinese media reported that a small number of cases were identified on Beijing university campuses following the return of students from other regions.
It is the final big economy in the world striving to eradicate Covid outbreaks, arguing this is required to prevent the virus from spreading and overwhelming hospitals.
Johns Hopkins University reports that China has officially documented less than 15,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
