China’s recent COVID-19 wave has left patients and their families struggling with medical debt. A Peking University study estimated that as of January 11, 900 million people in China had been infected with COVID-19, and China’s...
The following article addresses “central government policymakers” and poses ten direct questions about China’s long-running “zero-COVID” policy, which was in effect until a sudden policy shift on December 7, 2022. Its form and...
Nearly three years after whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang’s death from COVID-19, the “Wailing Wall” that emerged in the comments section under his last Weibo post continues to serve as a repository for the hopes, dreams, worries,...
The following censorship instructions have been leaked and distributed online. Confidential★One Year Guidelines and Requirements for Reporting on Pandemic Prevention and Control Measures (13) (December 24, 2022) All media should...
The recent abrupt end to China’s “zero-COVID” policy has left many citizens feeling confused and dismayed, unsure how to best protect themselves and their families. There have been reports of Omicron outbreaks in many Chinese...
Beijing’s COVID outbreak seems to have widened after the abandonment of China’s long-held zero-COVID policy. Daily reported new cases have dropped dramatically due to the end of mass testing but accounts and videos out of the...
China’s zero-COVID policy is, seemingly, over. Guidelines, referred to colloquially as “The New 10 Points,” issued Wednesday by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council drastically curtailed restrictions...
Despite hints of a modest easing of pandemic controls—including a shortened quarantine period for inbound travelers, and attempts to “optimize” and adjust a “one-size-fits-all” approach—it remains to be seen whether China’s...
In this post from WeChat public account 兽楼处, a man gives a first-person account of his family’s experience in quarantine following a potential COVID exposure at a shopping mall in Beijing. In addition to describing the food,...
Two years and four months after whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang’s death from COVID-19, the “Wailing Wall” that emerged in the comments under his last Weibo post continues to serve as a repository for the hopes, dreams,...
“Voices of May” is the first in CDT’s monthly “Voices of …” series of viral audio-visual content from pandemic lockdowns in Shanghai and other Chinese cities. Inspired by the original audio-visual compilation “Voices of April,”...
As China doubles down on its zero-COVID policy, Shanghai struggles through a sixth week of lockdown, and Beijing expands mass testing and targeted closures, many smaller Chinese cities and towns have endured much longer periods...
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. BJWX notice Latest instructions: All platforms, please refer to [attached] examples and perform...
On April 19, a nine-and-a-half minute audio recording of a phone call between a German resident in Shanghai and a translator working for the local neighborhood committee went viral on Chinese and overseas social media. The...
A YouTube video performance of “New Slave” 《新奴隶》, a song by Shanghai-based rapper Astro, has drawn attention for its frank lyrics about the chaos during Shanghai’s recent lockdown. After being widely circulated on...
As state media rings with Xi Jinping’s pronouncement that “persistence is victory” in Shanghai’s fight against Omicron—now sometimes referred to as “The Battle to Protect Shanghai”—a different martial metaphor reigns on social...
Recently, a recording of a five-minute phone call made by an elderly Shanghai man to his neighborhood committee has been circulating on the Chinese internet and social media. During the call, the man [identified here only as...
After conducting nucleic acid testing on its 26 million residents this week, Shanghai remains under lockdown. The metropolis has reported over 120,000 cases of COVID-19 thus far, most of them asymptomatic. Nationwide, an...
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