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The Story

Why Shanghai is back in lockdown

The Story

The Times

Politics, Uk News, News, Long-form Audio, Global News, In-depth Journalism, Daily News, Exclusive Interviews, Audio Storytelling, News Analysis, Current Affairs, Investigative Reporting, Daily News Podcast

3.91.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As Shanghai enters the fourth week of the world’s strictest Covid lockdown, residents are running out of food, medicine and patience – and there’s no end in sight. Meanwhile Beijing has begun mass testing and ordered its nearly 22 million residents to remain in the city. Should China rethink its Covid strategy?

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Guests:

- Didi Tang, Beijing correspondent, The Times.

- Ian Mote, British banker living in Shanghai.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Clips: BBC, NBC, CBS, PBS, WION, ABC News. 

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

In the big bustling city of Shanghai, life has come to an abrupt standstill. The normally

0:13.6

packed streets are now eerily empty. The crowded bars and restaurants shut. As residents

0:21.4

of the city enter the fourth week of the world's strictest Covid lockdown, they're running

0:27.7

out of food, medicine and patience and there's no end in sight. There's probably 4,000

0:36.2

people in our compound, so we've tested every second day and if one person out of those

0:42.7

4,000 has the case, then the clock resets. The residents aren't the only ones affected.

0:54.1

As the world's busiest port is suddenly put on poles, the whole world is now starting

1:00.2

to feel the impact of Shanghai's lockdown.

1:03.1

I think it's only logical to think the whole global supply chain is going to be disrupted.

1:11.4

With panic, now spreading to other cities like Beijing, who fear a similar lockdown, should

1:17.0

China rethink its zero Covid strategy? You're listening to stories of our times from the

1:23.4

times and the Sunday times. I'm Manvin Rano. Today, Shanghai, China's new Covid crisis.

1:45.2

We're lucky now, our apartments are in reasonable size and we've got a decent balcony, so

1:50.0

we can get outside. Our balcony is maybe 10 metres long, so if I go up and down a hundred

1:54.6

times, I can walk for a kilometre, I've done that a few times.

1:58.9

That's Ian Moat, a British expert who's lived in China for years. He's currently hold

2:04.4

up in his Shanghai apartment with his wife and young daughter.

2:09.9

What I see, I look out the window at the back of our apartment, we overlook a river with

2:13.4

a main road, a couple of other major roads a bit further than distance, so they're usually

2:17.6

teaming with traffic. Now, if you see one or two cars going down, it's almost a surprise.

2:25.0

It's a little bit of movement now, certainly for the first 10 days, it was absolute ghost town.

2:29.4

There was not a person to be seen. Inside our compound, usually, it's late afternoon, now,

...

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