China | Locked down, fed up

The way Chinese think about covid-19 is changing

But the government shows little sign of changing its zero-covid policy

|BEIJING

READING THE news backwards has long been a useful skill in China, where officials often obfuscate. Recently it has seemed like a matter of survival for some. Take the residents of Beijing, the capital, who are girding themselves for a covid-19 lockdown and all the hardship that might entail. When the city’s officials announced on April 11th that there was more than enough food for everyone, people assumed the opposite. “Understood, hurry and go shopping now,” a cynic wrote online.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Locked down, fed up”

What China is getting wrong: It’s not just covid

From the April 16th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from China

Why China banned international adoptions

Much has changed since the programme was started

Can Xi Jinping take Hong Kong “from stability to prosperity”?

A fixation on security may cost the city in the long term


China is beating America in the nuclear-energy race

They have pioneered a new generation of reactor


Liberalism is far from dead in China

Despite an intense clampdown, it may even be drawing more adherents

How to get kicked out of China’s Communist Party

Officials are trying to expel slackers and the superstitious

Why Xi Jinping is envious of his predecessor

China’s ruler would like to grab Deng Xiaoping’s legacy