The News About Shanghai’s COVID Lockdown Is Shocking. The Reality Might Be Worse.

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News, News Commentary

4.7 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What’s happening in China’s largest and richest city right now is quite unbelievable. Shanghai is now several weeks into a government lockdown to stop the spread of COVID variants. In a metro with roughly the population of the state of Texas, residents cannot go outside. They cannot walk to grocery stores or pharmacies to pick up essential medicine. If they test positive for COVID, they are removed from their families and taken to quarantine facilities, where conditions are reportedly hellish. As the U.S. enters a stage of normalcy in the pandemic, China is still pursuing a draconian COVID Zero policy at the risk of starving citizens in its richest city. Why? Dan Wang, a Chinese writer and tech analyst, joins the show to talk about what he’s hearing from Shanghai, what China is trying to accomplish, and whether protests could make a difference to the Chinese Communist Party. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Dan Wang Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Dave Chang, and Chris Ying.
0:02.9	We are the hosts of Recipe Club.
0:05.4	You may have listened to it before, but we are now back on the air and new and improved
0:10.2	with the same hosts that lose every week.
0:12.6	I still don't know what the rules are because they've changed as well.
0:15.4	Chris, can you give a quick rundown?
0:17.3	Every week we debate the best way to cook the things you want to eat.
0:20.7	We take a user, listener, submitted recipe, and we all cook it with our friends, Priya
0:25.8	Krishna, Rachel Kong, Brian Ford, and John DeBerry, and then we talk about what went right
0:30.4	and what went wrong.
0:31.4	No, I actually really don't want to do this podcast, and they are hardly our friends.
0:37.4	They are enemies.
0:39.1	They are enemies.
0:40.1	It's Dave's civil disobedience.
0:41.6	If you want to see Dave Chang in an act of civil disobedience, tune into Recipe Club where
0:45.8	he will not follow the recipe.
0:47.8	I'm contractually obligated to make this podcast, but I'm here to have a good time.
0:53.1	So listen to Recipe Club every week on the Ringer podcast network.
0:59.2	Today's episode takes us behind the scenes to an extraordinary story out of China where
1:04.4	a dystopian COVID lockdown has gripped its largest and richest city Shanghai.
1:22.1	What you're hearing there is a drone flying over the balconies of Shanghai.
1:26.8	It's blaring a message that roughly translates to this.
	...

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