Shanghai Lockdown

Background: "Precision Prevention" Meets Omicron

In March 2022 the highly transmissible Omicron BA.2 variant spread through communities in Shanghai. The city had been known for "precision prevention and control", generally avoiding citywide PCR testing and sweeping lockdowns; according to research by University of Chicago political scientist Dali L. Yang, in mid-March Shanghai officials and experts were still saying that a lockdown was not an option given the city's role in China's economic and social development. As infections rose rapidly, the control measures were steadily escalated.

From Staged Lockdowns to a Citywide Lockdown

On the evening of 27 March, Shanghai announced PCR screening and lockdowns in two stages divided by the Huangpu River: Pudong, Punan and adjacent areas would be locked down from 5 a.m. on 28 March and released on 1 April, and Puxi locked down from 1 April and released on 5 April. Metro and bus services in the locked-down areas stopped and residential compounds were sealed. According to Yang, on the evening of 30 March Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang convened an all-city cadre meeting, admitted inadequacies in the city's work, understanding and preparation and that some control measures had not been properly implemented, and announced comprehensive measures for all areas and all people, including static management and PCR screening — in effect a citywide lockdown. On 2 April Vice Premier Sun Chunlan arrived in Shanghai to oversee epidemic control. After completing a new round of citywide PCR sampling on 4 April, the authorities announced that the whole city would remain under lockdown until testing, transfers and related work were finished, with residents strictly confined to their homes except to seek medical care; the lockdown went on to last about two months.

Life Under Lockdown

The lockdown came suddenly, and many residents had no time to stock up on food. Delivery and logistics services broke down across much of the city, buying groceries became a widespread problem, and compound-level "group buying" became the main way many households obtained food. Deputy Mayor Chen Tong acknowledged that getting supplies the "last 100 meters" to households was a major challenge. Difficulties obtaining medical care, the centralised quarantine of infected people and close contacts, conditions in makeshift hospitals and in-home disinfection also caused discontent. On 22 April "The Voice of April", a video of under six minutes compiling audio recordings of the Shanghai outbreak from early April, spread widely on Chinese social media and was promptly deleted across the internet.

According to official figures cited by Yang, Covid-related deaths in Shanghai stood at 595 as of 11 June 2022, most of them unvaccinated elderly people with underlying conditions; the Shanghai authorities did not announce the first Covid deaths until 18 April. Volunteers separately compiled a list of more than 200 people who had died at least partly because they were denied timely medical care.

Central Leadership's Position and Reopening

On 5 May Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, which declared that "we won the battle to defend Wuhan, and we will certainly win the battle to defend Greater Shanghai", called for unswerving adherence to the general policy of "dynamic zero-COVID", and demanded a resolute struggle "against all words and deeds that distort, doubt or deny our country's epidemic prevention policies". Shanghai subsequently brought community transmission to zero step by step. On 31 May it announced that from 1 June it would enter the stage of fully restoring normal order of production and daily life, with buses and the metro resuming service.

Economic Toll and Aftermath

The lockdown dealt a heavy blow to the economy: according to the Shanghai Statistics Bureau, Shanghai's GDP fell 13.7% year on year in the second quarter of 2022. Yang argues that the Shanghai lockdown marked the plateau of China's zero-Covid campaign, revealing the limits of "precision prevention" against Omicron and the vast costs of zero-Covid. In December that year China drastically relaxed its control measures, ending the zero-Covid policy.