SHANGHAI, (Reuters) – China’s major financial hub of Shanghai reported more new COVID-19 related deaths yesterday as residents vented their anger over a harsh lockdown and strict censorship online.
Shanghai’s full-city lockdown began at the start of April, though many people have been confined to their homes for much longer, and the stress began to tell on the residents.
The city, battling China’s biggest coronavirus outbreak so far, reported 12 new COVID-19 deaths on Friday, up from 11 a day before.
The patients who died had an average age of 88, the Shanghai government said. All had underlying health conditions, and none had been vaccinated.
On social media, netizens battled against censors overnight to share a six-minute video entitled “The Voice of April”, a montage of voices recorded over the course of the Shanghai outbreak.
Panning across Shanghai’s silent skyscrapers, the video consists of residents complaining about the lack of food and medicine, as well as the heavy-handed tactics of city authorities.
All direct references to the film were removed from the Weibo microblogging service by Saturday morning, though some comments criticising the censorship survived.
“I can only say that if you don’t even want to listen to just a small amount of real voices, then it is really hopeless,” said one.
Many were reminded of the anger that erupted on social media two years ago following the death from COVID-19 of Li Wenliang, a doctor reprimanded by police for sharing “false” information about a new SARS-like infectious disease in Wuhan in late 2019.
“Dr. Li, after two years nothing has changed,” said another Weibo user. “We still can’t open our mouths, still can’t speak.”
