Chinese President Xi Jinping now has a bigger problem than stopping COVID-19 infections: Quelling escalating anger in Shanghai before it spreads across China, creating a wider crisis of confidence in the Communist Party.
The lockdown in China’s main financial hub, now in its third week, has spawned some of the most anti-government criticism in years on the country’s tightly controlled social media. The latest trending post to get censored featured an 82-year-old man pleading for medication with a local party official who said he could offer only traditional Chinese remedies.
"I’m also very worried about the people seeking help,” the party official said in the recording. "I’m also very angry but there’s nothing we can do.”