In Shanghai, police break down a door to take residents to a quarantine center

Published on: 04/05/2022 – 19:04Modified on: 04/05/2022 – 19:05 A video that has been circulating since May 1 on Chinese social networks shows police officers in white medical suits breaking down the door of an apartment to Shanghai to take one of the residents to a quarantine center. A video reflecting the chaos generated by the “zero Covid” policy in the city of 26 million inhabitants, confined since the beginning of April 2022. The video is filmed from inside the apartment by one of the two residents. First, one of them talks to a man, also in a sanitary suit, from the window who tells her that the police are looking for her and tells her to open the door. On the other side, the police are banging at the locked door, then smashes it in the face of the two residents’ refusal to open. A man dressed in a sanitary suit, with a surgical mask and a visor then enters the apartment, followed by two other people in the same outfit. The police are identifiable by their armbands and the inscription “police” in Chinese and English on their chests. They ask the two women to follow them. Confused, the latter say they will call the police. “We are the police,” retorts one of them. “You have tested positive, we are here to transfer you,” said one of them. The women claim that their results are not yet available.刚 上海 的 朋友 发 这个 视频 视频 我 ， 说 说 能 海外 海外 的 推特 上 上 吗 长 长 长 ， 时候 时候 要求 我 我 ， 我 先 先 前面 前面 一 段 段 段 pic.twitter.com/jxamu4odee— Cynthia (@Hydrangeatiger ) May 2, 2022 extract from the video, here published on Twitter 这 是 前面 前面 一 个 视频 的 后。。 我 在 墙 墙 内 悲愤 的 朋友们 ， 发帖 被 删 ， 叫 天天 天天 不 应 叫地 地 灵。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。老天，救救这些可怜的百姓吧 pic.twitter.com/P5TOE4d031— Cynthia (@HydrangeaTiger) May 2, 2022 Second part of the video. The full video is available on Reddit. The 26 million inhabitants of Shanghai have been confined since April 5, 2022, under very strict conditions: the inhabitants are confined to their homes, receive their food by deliveries organized by the authorities and can almost only go out to carry out PCR tests. . Positive people are sent to quarantine centers. “You don’t know what the rules are and even if you know them, it all depends on the people who apply them when they pick you up” Maria Wang (pseudonym), a resident of Shanghai discovered the scene on Weibo. She did not know the two women in the video, but recognized her residence in the footage. It was also referenced in its neighbors’ WeChat (Chinese equivalent of WhatsApp) chat group, another video showing the damage caused by the police. This just happened in our compound. Police broke in & forcibly took someone away, without a positive COVID test (according to neighbour, the results are pending, & residential committee & cdc agreed to review/confirm latest test results before doing anything) #shanghailockdown pic.twitter.com/vUlQTJ79WV — Linette Lim 林明燕 (@LinetteMLim) May 1, 2022 This video was filmed on May 1 according to Maria Wang, after the police passed. We recognize the smashed white door, the brown parquet floor and the white wall with the arc patterns. Maria Wang lives in the residence – and sent us different elements of the residence decor visible from her apartment, which correspond to those on the video. In our residence, no one is allowed to go out and no one answers questions about our discussion group between neighbors. This situation seems all the more improbable to me because there have been several times people tested positive, but who stayed in the residence (and we don’t know, it’s not clear, if it’s because there was no more room in the hospitals or the ambulance). On April 29, insisting with the volunteers who take care of the PCR tests, we learned that we were all negative, but some, still under surveillance, so we had to remain confined in the building. All of this is quite frustrating, because that everyone cooperates, but there is no communication, no clear way forward. Since the start of containment in Shanghai, other videos of the genre that have circulated on Chinese social networks show residents trying to protest against their transfer to quarantine centers. Published on April 19, this exchange between a German living in Shanghai who claims to be negative and not to have to go to the quarantine center and a translator from the neighborhood committee where he lives, went viral. As the conditions in these centers are generally poor (24-hour lights on, no privacy, poor sanitary facilities, e.g. no running water for showers), people try to avoid going there, because in many cases they recover on their own within a few days. So the problem is the lack of due process and clarity of the rules. And in general, there is this atmosphere of chance and uncertainty, where things are done without a clear legal basis. You don’t know what the rules are and even if you know them it doesn’t seem to matter because it all depends on the people who apply the actions when they pick you up. Shanghai residents try to make their protest heard despite censorship. On April 23, the video “Voice of April” which compiles the complaints and cries of distress of the inhabitants recorded over the month, became the symbol of this. Reshared en masse, the video has since been impossible to find on Chinese social networks.