BEIJING: Millions of residents in Beijing stayed at home on Monday as the Chinese city battled a Covid-19 outbreak with tightening travel restrictions.
Beijing citizens are concerned that they will soon be subjected to the same severe rules that have kept the majority of Shanghai’s 25 million residents at home for several weeks.
Officials say the eastern superpower is winning the fight against the country’s worst outbreak since the pandemic began.
Nonetheless, the Shanghai blockade has become more severe, provoking fury and unusual protest in the world’s last major economy that adheres to a zero-Covid policy.
This strategy has weakened an economy that was just months earlier showing signs of quickly recovering from the pandemic.
Exports in April fell to their lowest monthly rate since June 2020, according to customs statistics released Monday, as restrictions tangled critical supply lines from Shanghai to Shenzhen.
The virus response in China has a compelling political dynamic, with President Xi Jinping pinning his legitimacy to safeguarding Chinese lives from Covid.
Xi, who is set to win a second five-year term as president later this year, has reaffirmed his commitment to the zero-Covid policy, despite rising popular dissatisfaction.
[embedpost slug=”/stop-asking-why-shanghai-tightens-covid-lockdown-beijing-keeps-testing/”]
During rush hour Monday morning in Beijing, subway stations and offices in Chaoyang, the city’s most populous district, were deserted after officials increased a work-from-home directive on Sunday in response to mounting Covid cases.
Non-essential companies in the 3.5 million-strong district were shut down, including the Apple store in the popular Sanlitun retail district, which had only opened briefly in the morning.
“Seeing so few people around makes me feel really uneasy,” Wang, a middle-aged cleaner waiting for her shift to begin, told AFP.
In recent weeks, Beijing has reported hundreds of infections, with 49 new Covid-19 cases confirmed on Monday, a small amount by worldwide standards but enough to cause limitations in the country’s political heartland.
As limitations begin to define daily life in the city of 21 million, some finance workers are moving into hotels near their offices.
“Our firm advised us not to go home because they believe commuting poses risks,” says a Beijing-based investment manager who has relocated to a hotel near his workplace.
“Some of my pals have been advised to avoid taking public transportation to work and instead drive or ride their bikes to avoid being affected by the outbreak.”
