Shanghai’s Communist Party committee, the city’s most
powerful political body, issued a letter online proclaiming the lockdown’s
success and thanking citizens for their “support and contributions.” The move
came amid a steady rollback in compulsory measures that have upended daily life
for millions while severely disrupting the economy and global supply chains.
While defending President and Communist Party chief Xi
Jinping’s hardline “zero-COVID” policy, the country’s leadership appears to be
acknowledging the public backlash against measures seen as trampling already
severely limited rights to privacy and participation in the workings of
government.
In one such step, the Cabinet’s Joint Prevention and Control
Mechanism issued a letter Tuesday laying out rules banning “non-standard,
simple and rude indoor disinfection” by mostly untrained teams in Shanghai and
elsewhere that have left homes damaged and led to reports of property theft.
Full bus and subway service in Shanghai was being restored
from Wednesday, with rail connections to the rest of China to follow. Still,
more than half a million people in the city of 25 million remain under lockdown
or in designated control zones because virus cases are still being detected.
The government says all restrictions will be gradually
lifted, but local neighborhood committees still wield considerable power to
implement sometimes conflicting and arbitrary policies. Negative PCR tests for
COVID-19 taken within the previous 48 hours also remain standard in Shanghai,
Beijing and elsewhere for permission to enter public venues.
That measure didn’t deter people in Shanghai from gathering
outside to eat and drink under the watch of police deployed to discourage large
crowds from forming.
“With the lockdown lifting, I feel very happy. I feel today
how I feel during Chinese New Year — that kind of mood and joy,” said Wang
Xiaowei, 34, who moved to Shanghai from the inland province of Guizhou just a
week before the lockdown began.
Liu Ruilin, 18, said she wasn’t sure her building’s security
guard would let her and others out on Tuesday night. The restriction ended
exactly at midnight, she said.
“Then we said, ‘Let’s go to the Bund to have fun,’” she said
in the city’s historic riverside district. “We thought there wouldn’t be too many
people here, but we were surprised after coming over that a lot of people are
here. I feel pretty good — quite excited.”
Schools will partially reopen on a voluntary basis, and
shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and drug stores will gradually
reopen at no more than 75% of their total capacity. Cinemas and gyms will
remain closed.
Health authorities on Wednesday reported just 15 new
COVID-19 cases in Shanghai, down from a record high of around 20,000 daily
cases in April.
A few malls and markets have reopened, and some residents
have been given passes allowing them out for a few hours at a time.
The lockdown has prompted an exodus of Chinese and foreign
residents, with crowds forming outside the city’s Hongqiao Railway Station,
where only some train services have resumed.
Even while the rest of the world has opened up, China has
stuck to a “zero-COVID” strategy that requires lockdowns, mass testing and
isolation at centralized facilities for anyone who is infected or has been in
contact with someone who has tested positive.
The country’s borders also remain largely closed and the
government has upped requirements for the issuance of passports and permission
to travel abroad.
At least half of foreign companies in Shanghai are waiting
until next week to reopen while they put in place hygiene measures, said
Bettina Schoen-Behanzin, a vice president of the European Union Chamber of
Commerce in China. As a precaution, many companies plan to have only half their
workforce on site at a time.
“There is still quite some uncertainty and a scare that if
there is a positive case in the office building or in your compound, you might
be locked down again,” said Schoen-Behanzin, who works in Shanghai.
The strict restrictions in Shanghai, the country’s commercial
capital and home of the world’s busiest port, dragged down Chinese economic
activity and disrupted global manufacturing and trade.
Retail sales fell by a worse-than-forecast 11% in April from
a year earlier, government data show. Auto sales fell by almost half from a
year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Private sector forecasters have cut their estimates for this
year’s economic growth to as low as 2%, well below the ruling Communist Party’s
target of 5.5%. Some expect output to shrink in the three months ending in
June.
“The economy is really in a crisis,” said Schoen-Behanzin.
The Port of Shanghai, the world’s busiest, appears to be
back to 80% to 85% of its normal operating capacity, according to
Schoen-Behanzin. She cited data that said the port had a backlog of 260,000
cargo containers in April.
“The rest of the world will feel these delays probably
(through) June or July,” she said.
The city will likely see a “mass exodus” of foreign
residents this summer, “especially families with small kids,” Schoen-Behanzin
said. She said about half of Shanghai’s foreign residents had already left over
the past two years.
“People are really fed up with these lockdowns,” she said.
“It’s not safe, especially if you have small children.” -AP
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