Shanghai’s leader hails 2-month lockdown as ‘completely correct’

SHANGHAI’S leader declared victory in defending the financial hub against Covid-19, describing a 2-month lockdown that confined millions of people to their homes and spurred sporadic unrest as “completely correct”.

Shanghai “broke the repeated stalemate of the ­epidemic, realised and ­consolidated the fruits of dynamic clearance in society, and won the battle to defend Shanghai,” Li Qiang said at the city’s Communist Party congress over the weekend, echoing triumphant claims in state media earlier this month. He also gave credit “to the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping”.

Shanghai eased more of the rules that have curtailed normal daily activity since late March, announcing plans to let restaurants in some areas deemed lower risk to resume dine-in services this week. The Chinese city reported just 4 local cases on Sunday (Jun 26), with 2 found outside quarantine.

Shares of liquor stocks advanced on Monday (Jun 27), after the announcement about eateries in the city of 25 million people, helping the consumer staples subgauge rise 2.3 per cent, among the best performers on the  CSI 300 Index. Tsingtao Brewery Co., Wuliangye Yibin Co. and Luzhou Laojiao Co. all rose at least 3.8 per cent.

The fate of Li, a 62-year-old who once served as a top aide to the president, is being closely watched ahead of a Communist Party meeting later this year, at which Xi’s expected to secure a third term in office. The question is whether Li will get a seat on the 7-member Politburo Standing Committee, the ruling party’s most powerful body, possibly even as premier. 

All but one Shanghai party secretary has made it to the top body since 1987, with former Premier Zhu Rongji and Xi himself among those to advance. Should Li fail to make the body, it may be an indication that Xi — the most powerful leader in China in decades — was unable to promote him, given his handling of the Shanghai outbreak.

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The desperate scenes in Shanghai presented the biggest crisis for China’s Communist Party since the virus emerged in Wuhan, triggering the world’s first lockdown. Throughout the early days of the pandemic, the financial hub had taken a looser approach to containing Covid, and initially resisted a lockdown when cases flared again earlier this year. 

But it soon became clear the outbreak was widespread, necessitating more Draconian measures. Residents weren’t allowed to leave their homes to buy food or seek medical care during much of the 2-month lockdown, prompting some of the most high-profile protests in years against China’s government to erupt in housing compounds and social media.

Li himself faced criticism from many in Shanghai for his handling of the lockdown. In one incident, he was stopped by a woman in a wheelchair during a public visit who scolded the government for failing to provide enough food. 

Following Shanghai’s experience, Beijing began to move faster and earlier in other cities, locking down individual neighbourhoods and apartment blocks over 1 or 2 cases. The government is also investing more in its testing regime, building permanent PCR testing infrastructure in places like the capital and Shanghai, and making negative results a requirement to enter shopping malls, office buildings and even public parks. BLOOMBERG