The manufacturing hub of Guangzhou has closed itself to most arrivals as China battles a COVID-19 outbreak in its big eastern cities. Shanghai, under tight lockdown, has taken the brunt of the surge, with more than 26,000 new cases reported.
China’s government and the entirely state-controlled media are growing increasingly defensive about complaints over the COVID-19 prevention measures, censoring content online and rebuking foreign critics.
China was “strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the U.S. side’s groundless accusation against China’s epidemic response,” Zhao said. The English-language China Daily acknowledged that Shanghai’s measures are “far from perfect,” and pointed to the firing last week of three local officials for failing in their duties. But it said that shouldn’t become an “excuse to politicize the event and blame China.”
Residents have resorted to group buying of groceries because they are not allowed to leave their buildings, with only partial success in obtaining needed items.