OPINION:
China’s financial center and its largest metropolis, Shanghai, announced in early June that it is finally phasing out its harshest “zero-COVID” lockdown after more than two months.
While many headlines focus on the heavy economic tolls the lockdown has had on the Chinese economy and the global supply chain, underreported is the invisible traumas inflicted on the population.
Roughly 25 million residents became prisoners in their own homes, many hauled away to quarantine centers without any recourse, COVID-positive babies forcibly separated from parents, some starved as there were food shortages, and the sick and elderly lost access to life-saving medical treatments. The cumulative effect on this mega-city is learned helplessness on a massive scale. Consequently, there may be a long-lasting impact on the outlook of the populace, especially its middle class and the young generation, as the feelings of powerlessness and the unpredictable nature of the lockdown were forced upon them. While economic activities may soon be bustling again, the psychological wounds could leave permanent scars.
The tragedy is that the harsh lockdown of Shanghai was avoidable. It is 2022, not 2020. There are clear differences in perceptions by its own citizens this time despite nonstop state propaganda and media censorship.
The Chinese Communist Party leadership, under the direction of Chair Xi Jinping, fully and opportunistically took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic. For two years, the official media continuously reported the high COVID-19 case numbers in America, indoctrinating its audience that this is evidence of Mr. Xi’s brilliant leadership, the CCP’s mandate for dictatorial rule in China, and a sign of the West in decline and messiness of democracy.
The suddenness of the lockdown in Shanghai, starting around March 2022, evaporated two years of such propaganda overnight. Just as the rest of the world is learning to coexist with COVID-19 with newly developed mRNA vaccines, oral antiviral medications and monoclonal antibody treatments, Mr. Xi decided to backpedal China to square one with the same harsh lockdown directive it used in Wuhan. Thus, the reality must be starling to the Chinese that as the West is returning to a resemblance of normalcy, millions of residents in Shanghai and other cities must endure daily long lines for PCR swabs and forced confinement at quarantine centers if positive.
To exacerbate the mental stress further, conditions at some of these quarantine centers are very wanting; they have few bathrooms, cold showers and 24-hour lights leading to a lack of quality sleep. There is a direct connection between mental health and sleep quality, and the extended deprivation of which can lead to anxiety and depression. If one doesn’t get sick from COVID-19, the increased level of stress hormones while being forced to live under such conditions is sufficient to induce physical and mental malaise. Moreover, it doesn’t help that the government blames international packages as a source for the outbreak. This claim has no scientific basis, as COVID-19 is an airborne disease, and it only adds unnecessary public panic about items they receive at home.
The most damaging and insidious harm to mental health comes from forcibly shutting people inside their homes for more than two months. In essence, this is like family-size “solitary confinement” and the data is very clear that extended isolation leads to long-lasting traumas. This is even worse than standard prison policies where inmates are at least allowed to spend time outdoors for exercise and sunlight exposure. Physical activities can ease anxiety and depression; a simple walk in the park sharpens cognition; sunlight balances a body’s circadian rhythm for better sleep. Lacking all of the above, it is simply inescapable that 25 million residents being shut inside mostly small apartments would have to endure an avalanche of mental issues.
By April 2022, barely one month into the hard lockdown, the government acknowledged that the call volume to the mental health hotline tripled. A poll of Shanghai residents found more than 40% suffer from depression. The keyword search, “psychological counseling,” jumped 253%. Tragically but also predictably, there were increased reports of suicide, something that was already evident during the prior lockdown in Wuhan.
The lack of nuance in breathless CCP propaganda about COVID-19 to justify Mr. Xi’s lockdown policy adds a stigmatic label on people who are infected by the virus. They may be partially shunned, or even lose jobs despite a full recovery. Even Stasi-like spying tactic has been bought back and openly encouraged to snitch on neighbors who show possible signs of COVID-19 infection, with a monetary reward of 20,000 yuan if confirmed positive.
For the younger generation of Chinese, this is a real-life lesson about what had happened during the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s when the populace was incited to report anyone who might be an “enemy of the people,” including closest family members. Police officers don the same white personal protective clothing as medical stuff when hauling away people to quarantine centers, forcibly if needed. They are dubbed as “White Guards,” a frightening reminder of the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution who tortured and killed millions under Chairman Mao. All of this social coercion, open and subtle, pile on layers of mental stress on the already exhausted population.
The crack is also visible in frontline workers. There are multiple leaked reports of exhaustion, resignation, and suicide from this group which shoulders the main responsibility for carrying out this unpopular policy. Another group of frontline workers is the delivery drivers who were the lifeline of the city during the lockdown since only online shopping was allowed. Yet, their reward was to sleep under bridges or in tents, since they were not allowed to go back to their apartment complexes due to irrational fear that they may be contaminated with COVID-19. Most of them are migrants from outside of Shanghai, many have decided to quit and go back to their rural villages once the lockdown eased.
Shanghai is a critical economic hub for China; lockdown-induced downturn cascades throughout the rest of the country. It became another source of deep anxiety as many faced the prospect of reduced salary or unemployment. This is especially painful for newly graduated students as the youth jobless rate rises to 18.2%. For the more prosperous upper - and middle-class, there is a booming inquiry about moving overseas as a path to escape the crushing burden of uncertainty; no amount of money was able to buy their way out of a harsh lockdown. Online searches for “emigration” jumped 440% as well as a trending “run philosophy” for the elites in search of an exit strategy. To no one’s surprise, the CCP countered by limiting international travel and denying passport renewals.
In a most-telling sign of desperation and last-resort defiance, two-thirds of the young demographic surveyed refuse to have children in this kind of uber-oppressive environment. For the Chinese culture that values family above all else, it is the ultimate form of rebellion and a deep cry for help.
This “zero Covid” mass mobilization has metastasized into a political campaign - a campaign that Mr. Xi cannot and would not retreat from since this is the prelude to his enthronement later this year for a precedent-breaking extension as CCP and Chinese leader. The anguish of millions of locked-in residents in Shanghai and other cities is a small sacrifice in his quest to become a “dear leader for life” modeling after Mao. Let’s all pray that Mr. Xi doesn’t model after Mr. Mao’s record of cruelty.
• Jianli Yang, Ph.D., a former political prisoner of China and a Tiananmen Massacre survivor, is founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China and the author of “For Us, The Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth.” Austin Lin is a bio-scientist at the State University of New York and consultant to Citizen Power Initiatives for China.
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