The hope was short-lived. Since June 1, life had gradually returned to almost normal in the great metropolis of 25 million inhabitants, all after two months of drastic confinement in the name of the Chinese government’s zero covid policy. The people of Shanghai therefore thought they were done. But here we go again. The entire Minhang district will be completely closed from Friday evening, June 10. And that concerns at least 2.7 million people. They will all have to undergo a PCR test.
The decision was announced on the social network WeChat by the city authorities. The Shanghai municipality does not specify when the operations will be completed, but nearly three million tests will still take a while. Above all, it does not specify what will happen if new positive cases are detected. From there to imagining a new confinement, there is only one step. And the controversy is already rife on social networks: the inhabitants are worried. And all of this is therefore happening at a time when the atmosphere was for reopening, including also in the capital Beijing, even if the schools will not reopen there until next week.
This new screening is also part of a policy of generalized surveillance: the epidemic provides the Chinese government with the perfect opportunity to strengthen its surveillance of the population, in the name of the protection of public health. In several cities, drones and robots have been deployed on the streets, in airports, in shopping malls. They scan the temperature of passers-by and have loudspeakers to call to order those who are not wearing a mask.
Even more ambitious is the deployment, particularly in Shanghai, of facial recognition devices in all public places: hospitals and also theaters, administrative buildings, malls. They will constantly check your vaccination status by comparing it with your identity. More than seven billion dollars will be spent on this operation and the equipment will be provided by the main Chinese artificial intelligence company, Sense Time. Violators will likely face severe penalties. This is already the case in several cities of the country: fines, imprisonment, and placement on a “black list”.
A concern remains, it is the economic impact of all these restrictions, impact recognized by the Chinese power. Shanghai in particular, the hub of the Chinese economy, therefore remained shut down for two months. Many foreign companies then packed up. The municipality has just initiated a series of meetings with large multinationals, automotive, pharmaceutical, semi-conductors, to convince them to return. For example, the Americans Ford or General Motors were invited, if one believes the official daily newspaper of the city. But if containment were to restart, it could become very dissuasive for foreign investors.