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Millions Starve in Shanghai as China’s “Zero COVID” Policy Falls Flat

Posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2022
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by AMAC Newsline
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95 Comments
china

AMAC Exclusive – By Daniel Roman

Remember COVID-19? Remember China? The Chinese Communist Party really hopes you don’t. The official CCP narrative is that COVID-19, whose origins were entirely natural, was contained in early February of 2020 through the leadership of the party and its full mobilization of Chinese society. Beijing’s statistics claim only five individuals have died of COVID in two years in Mainland China – unless, of course, you count Hong Kong, where more than 8,000 have died in the last month, nearly double the government figure of 4,638. But for once, Beijing is quick to insist that Hong Kong is not an intrinsic part of China.

            For the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing’s ability to successfully implement a “Zero COVID” policy is more than a public health strategy – it is a source of legitimacy for their entire system. Throughout 2020 and 2021, the Chinese government and media sought to contrast China’s successful Zero COVID strategy with rising death tolls and political struggles over restrictions in the West. Only a country as efficient and well-managed as the People’s Republic of China, so the argument went, could possibly have managed COVID so “successfully.” Accordingly, the collapse of China’s Zero COVID strategy is a political disaster for the CCP.

            Currently, social media is full of videos and messages of desperate pleas for food from starving residents of Shanghai. One of the world’s largest cities and China’s economic and commercial hub, Shanghai and its 25 million residents have been experiencing a harsh lockdown that even surpasses the draconian measures employed in the spring of 2020. Residents are forbidden from leaving their homes even to shop for groceries, leading to many running out of food. The government has introduced a policy of removing children from parents who test positive, placing them who knows where or for what purpose. One resident, quoted by the Financial Times, remarked that “prison must be better than this. Prisoners are locked up, but at least they have three meals a day and know how long their sentence is.”

The response of the CCP to an outpouring of criticism over the harshness of the policies, their seeming pointlessness, and the failure of the local authorities to organize the delivery of food and medical supplies has been to charge those spreading such “online rumors” with sedition. This indicates an awareness of a much broader problem. On the one hand, Shanghai is not alone. Twenty-three cities with a total population of over 200,000,000 are under similar lockdowns. On the other, China’s “performance” in handling COVID-19, once ammunition for selling the “Chinese model” to the world, now looks like a dead end.

As recently as February 12, the CCP-linked Global Times published an op-ed entitled “U.S. media outlets now recognize China’s zero-COVID policy. Is it too late for them?” After praising China for “protecting global supply-chains,” it featured the following paragraph:

“With all these barriers, the West, particularly the US, is facing a painful dilemma: To learn from China – too difficult; not to learn from China – more tragedies. Moreover, for some Western elites, learning from the Chinese experience means confirming that China has beaten the West in terms of COVID-19 strategy. This is something they do not want to admit. This is why self-reflection from US media came so late.”

Less than two months later, it now looks like China has failed to learn the lessons from the West. States like Florida and nations like Sweden experimented with a soft-touch approach of pushing vaccines and shielding the vulnerable while encouraging others to live their lives, work, and, most importantly, return children to school. There was a recognition that, especially with Omicron, attempting to contain the virus was a futile endeavor and an exercise in societal self-harm. Even Australia and New Zealand, which strenuously pursued lockdowns longer than anywhere else in the western world, abandoned them after Omicron.

This leaves a Chinese government that appears to be advertising all the wrong lessons. A stubborn refusal to change course in the face of overwhelming evidence. A vaccination program that produced neither an effective vaccine nor managed to distribute it to the population. Worse, a government that, while publicly bragging about Zero COVID, made no preparations for future outbreaks or variants such that even the distribution networks for food which existed in 2020 no longer seem to be functioning. When a senior executive at a private equity firm is quoted as saying, “It doesn’t matter how much money you have or are willing to spend, you can’t get steady access to food,” it might please hardcore Maoists in the U.S. who wish to eat the rich. Still, it is not the model of a society which will inspire anyone in Africa or Latin America, as the CCP now seeks to expand its reach abroad.

The result is a major potential collapse in China’s soft power. But the exposure of Zero COVID as a failed policy also has significant implications for China’s hard power. COVID-19 was already highlighting the dangers posed by global supply chains dependent on one country. That is one reason why Chinese propaganda was heralding Beijing’s protection of “global supply chains.” If China cannot even keep its own factories open, that is an additional economic reason, on top of national security, why the United States should double down on its ambitions to bring manufacturing back to America.

At the end of the day, it is not just COVID-19. China’s government has shown once more what everyone familiar with it always suspected: behind all the rhetoric about growth, ultimately, it is made up of Marxists who will sacrifice economic performance and the very lives of their citizens for ideology every time given a choice. They are not pragmatists. The government which rules China today is the same party that caused millions to starve in the Great Leap Forward. Is it really so surprising that CCP would rather let millions go hungry in China’s largest city than admit that a Western democratically-elected politician might have had a point in saying that Zero COVID was a pipe dream? The CCP has also shown that it is not a reliable partner in the long term. Not for Brazil. Not for South Africa. Not for Europe. And certainly not for the United States of America.

Daniel Roman is the pen name of a frequent commentator and lecturer on foreign policy and political affairs, both nationally and internationally. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

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Tim
Tim
1 year ago

Let’s face it, China is a complete dumpster fire, the ultimate in brainwashed indoctrinated people. Russia is exactly the same. As for the supply chain disruption, Ross Perot called this one years ago when our grossly uneducated politicians passed the free trade agreement. He clearly stated all we would hear is a big sucking noise as all US manfacturing left the country. Hope the politicians are happy now!

Larry W.
Larry W.
1 year ago

So what you are saying is that the Chinese government saved the people from covid so they could starve to death. Sounds like a plan Biden would come up with.

BCSBUG
BCSBUG
1 year ago

Tucker Carlson opened his program Monday night (4-11-2022) talking about this situation, and he also described about how all of the pets — cats and dogs — are being gathered and then beaten to death. He did NOT show that footage, only bags along the sidewalks in which cats were confined and howling. Only the coldest, most horrible kind of dictator could kill not only his people but their pets as well. At least in Ukraine, the people had big enough hearts to take their pets with them when they fled; the Chinese have no such choice.

Collenton Family
Collenton Family
1 year ago

“Surpasses the draconian measures” is message rooting from a Chinese Marxist Ideology. They are brutal, and tout this kind of ideology to control the people.

pidl
pidl
1 year ago

China has been lying from the beginning. How can a country with the largest population in the world control Covid to such small numbers, not even admitting it existed, at first? Statistically speaking, it was impossible to get the numbers they were touting. If they were able to do that and did not tell the rest of the world how they did it, they are criminals! But they aren’t. They are just liars.

In the far east, it is all about saving face, not the truth!

Lies, that is all we will hear from them, the Arabs, the communists, and much of the rest of civilization. The Democrat Socialists fall in that same category.

And the MSM perpetuates all of the lies. As they say, if you tell a lie long enough , it becomes a truth.

A big problem here is how many of us, me included, did not stop the lying early. My kids lied to me. My wife lied to me. Others lied to me. I just thought that is the way the world is now. In order to compete, one has to lie.

But I could not bring myself to do it. I guess that is why I never really was promoted in the jobs I had. I was too honest. I really was not management material.

I do not know how long this has really gone on. But much of it is due to the lack of religion in our society. I seldom lie. But I do not hold those accountable that lie to me.

In a way, it is all my fault.

Nancy
Nancy
1 year ago

Pray for the People – they do not deserve this.

Tim Toroian
Tim Toroian
1 year ago

I hope the China fans are taking note. China has starved millions in the past and the Russian communists starved millions a large number of which were Ukrainians. Communists as a group do not change their spots.

Phillip Ridenour
Phillip Ridenour
1 year ago

Perhaps the lockdowns, the massive unreported deaths and economic disruption are what are keeping China from invading Taiwan. Perhaps there really is a silver lining.

PJ Thom
PJ Thom
1 year ago

The Biden’s are in bed with China so don’t be surprised if similar atrocities don’t start happening in the United States. We have been compromised by Bush, Clinton, Obama, Biden.

Robert
Robert
1 year ago

Going to have to get out the guns and cheerios soon.

Frank Maxant
Frank Maxant
1 year ago

Your articles are SO prolix! They wear me out by the 4th  ¶. I’d spend more time reading them, if only you’d cu to the chase.

Philip Hammersley
Philip Hammersley
1 year ago

I’m surprised that the media is even covering this. After all, since early 2020 they’ve been parroting the ChiCom lie that just several hundred Chinese have died of Covid when that is obviously total BS. As Senile Joe loves Xi so much, maybe he’ll try to lock up some of our cities and let people starve to death. Gotta keep those Chinese checks coming in to Hunter!

Phil
Phil
1 year ago

Let’s have 3 cheers for the SECOND AMENDMENT and the G_d-inspired geniuses who instituted it!

anna hubert
anna hubert
1 year ago

Has anyone called the UN yet?

jake the snake
jake the snake
1 year ago

I just love it when governments use a fake pandemic to kill hundreds of millions of people.

Orville Figgs
Orville Figgs
1 year ago

Hello? Knock Knock. Is anyone awake out there?
Walgreens is rationing baby formula.
I hope no babies starve in the United States.

gin
gin
1 year ago

Look up! God can and will one day wipe all evil from the earth by simply wanting it to be gone. He has that much power. He loves every human, but will only save the ones who want Him. So much is predicted about end times that it looks like we’re in it. Read second Timothy, chapter three, verses one through five. That’s one of many that are obvious. God knows every persons thoughts and even people who have never heard the gospel will be judged according to their good or bad behavior. Ones who have heard it must choose between Christ and the world led by Satan.

Alligator
Alligator
1 year ago

Apparently they are taking away babies as young as one month if someone “tests” positive, and taking people’s pet cats and dogs and bludgeoning them to death in front of the owners because of ZERO COVID!
They would love to do this to us. In fact they are already killing flocks of chickens un the US claiming they test positive.
If we don’t stop complying they will do us in.

Phyl
Phyl
1 year ago

Think about it. This is what the liberal DC demonrats want in America. To obummer, Soros, Hitlery, and the rest of those buzzards, if they want communism, move to China. Let Americans be free.

Deb Rockwell
Deb Rockwell
1 year ago

The globalists and people like Pelosi must be salivating at the idea of doing this to us as well.

Jeb
Jeb
1 year ago

The Chinese are 1 billion+ in numbers. They can live as they do or…

Gloria Hensley
Gloria Hensley
1 year ago

That’s what Fauci, Gates, Soros and Schwab would like to happen here in U.S. Depopulation. In’t happening fast enough with the so-called “vaccines”. Now let’s move on to starvation. Thats what all this Biden ‘inflation’ and gas prices are about. Soros is running a lot of stuff already. He is the one who put Jackson in the Supreme Court, and he was saying with a smile (if you’ve ever seen his smile. . . well) he said he set up stations in Ukraine years before this stuff started happening. That’s what he does, and he has a daughter just as bad as he is.He started taking Zalenski and the young people into the depths of evil years ago. He is a patient satanist and bids his time to get things in place, leaving destruction of morals along the way.

Gen. Patton
Gen. Patton
1 year ago

NEVER trust anything a Communist

Mark Jebe
Mark Jebe
1 year ago

AMAC has completely missed the point:

Shanghai’s total Covid case load in the week prior to the lockdown was 2 serious cases…get the real point…there is no Covid emergency in Shanghai, or as far as we know, elsewhere in China.
Covid is the excuse to shut down China’s major cities and isolate urban citizens from each other.

It’s the same tactic the Deep State used on us so they could steal the 2020 election. We were all locked down, so they could ignore election laws, mail out hundreds of millions of ballots and count them in private and get whatever result they wanted before the public knew what was going on.

The CCP will hold its convention sometime between now and November. It has until then to beat its population into submission and get rid of the troublemakers before the convention and election.

Vietvet6769
Vietvet6769
1 year ago

Is this false red flag so the left can control our midterm election? Mighty suspicious given the timing.

Patriot Will
Patriot Will
1 year ago

The rulers of communist China are a bunch of evil scoundrels. They are so cruel and depraved that they will starve their own people, rather than adjust their Draconian policies. These demonic leaders have no respect for life and only care for themselves and their immediate families. It’s astonishing how so many famous, rich, and powerful people in the United States would rather keep on making blood money than clean up their act and admit that the leaders of Communist China are totally devoid of humanity and kindness. Instead of pushing business with China, our businessmen and politicians should be cutting ties with China as soon as possible. Tragically, we are too dependent on China to cut our ties overnight; however, this country could be doing a lot more to make ourselves more independent. It will take time, but we can at least get the ball rolling. We can at least become more observant of evil, and start producing more of our own goods and services,

Fairfield 59
Fairfield 59
1 year ago

Boom – drop the Mic! He is so spot on.

Carol
Carol
1 year ago

The CCP is no different than the leftist here in the States. If the US economy collapses due to the incompetent policies of the Biden Admin and people start starving here, the Democrats will find a way to blame it on the Republicans or Putin or whatever. Then they will let folks die, just like the CCP cuz Marxist ideology is their religion and these leftist think they are gods! They have never cared about their subjects!

Lawrence Greenberg
Lawrence Greenberg
1 year ago

You had best believe that if they thought they could get away with doing it, the Communists – er, I mean the Democrats – would be doing this to us.

PaulE
PaulE
1 year ago

The CCP is one, if not the most, brutal and repressive regimes to ever have existed on the planet. Communist regimes all rule through force and the lives of the average person mean nothing to them. Comparing how western leaders think or the actions they may or may not do to that of the CCP, in terms of values and acceptable actions, is a fundamental waste of time and energy. In communism, the people exist to serve the state. Period. Full stop. They are entitled to nothing and will receive nothing other than what the state deems to allow them to have on any given day. The kind of policies being described in this article are mild compared to how Mao treated his fellow countrymen, that resulted in over 60 million dead.

This is the regime that western leaders have bent over backwards to accommodate and look the other way over for the last 30 years, as they all salivated over the potential access to the 1.4 billion people that make up the “Chinese marketplace”. So excuse me if this story reads a bit hypocritical at this late stage of our relationship with the CCP. Western leaders, not just in the United States but world-wide, long ago decided that the lure of a potential access to the “Chinese marketplace” was more important than any level of human rights concerns in that country. Only one President in the last 30 years dared to stand up to China, to any degree, and he was unfortunately removed by a soft coup and replaced by figurehead that has been bought and paid for by China.

Tim
Tim
1 year ago

Let’s face it, China is a complete dumpster fire, the ultimate in brainwashed indoctrinated people. Russia is exactly the same. As for the supply chain disruption, Ross Perot called this one years ago when our grossly uneducated politicians passed the free trade agreement. He clearly stated all we would hear is a big sucking noise as all US manfacturing left the country. Hope the politicians are happy now!

Larry W.
Larry W.
1 year ago

So what you are saying is that the Chinese government saved the people from covid so they could starve to death. Sounds like a plan Biden would come up with.

BCSBUG
BCSBUG
1 year ago

Tucker Carlson opened his program Monday night (4-11-2022) talking about this situation, and he also described about how all of the pets — cats and dogs — are being gathered and then beaten to death. He did NOT show that footage, only bags along the sidewalks in which cats were confined and howling. Only the coldest, most horrible kind of dictator could kill not only his people but their pets as well. At least in Ukraine, the people had big enough hearts to take their pets with them when they fled; the Chinese have no such choice.

Collenton Family
Collenton Family
1 year ago

“Surpasses the draconian measures” is message rooting from a Chinese Marxist Ideology. They are brutal, and tout this kind of ideology to control the people.

pidl
pidl
1 year ago

China has been lying from the beginning. How can a country with the largest population in the world control Covid to such small numbers, not even admitting it existed, at first? Statistically speaking, it was impossible to get the numbers they were touting. If they were able to do that and did not tell the rest of the world how they did it, they are criminals! But they aren’t. They are just liars.

In the far east, it is all about saving face, not the truth!

Lies, that is all we will hear from them, the Arabs, the communists, and much of the rest of civilization. The Democrat Socialists fall in that same category.

And the MSM perpetuates all of the lies. As they say, if you tell a lie long enough , it becomes a truth.

A big problem here is how many of us, me included, did not stop the lying early. My kids lied to me. My wife lied to me. Others lied to me. I just thought that is the way the world is now. In order to compete, one has to lie.

But I could not bring myself to do it. I guess that is why I never really was promoted in the jobs I had. I was too honest. I really was not management material.

I do not know how long this has really gone on. But much of it is due to the lack of religion in our society. I seldom lie. But I do not hold those accountable that lie to me.

In a way, it is all my fault.

Nancy
Nancy
1 year ago

Pray for the People – they do not deserve this.

Tim Toroian
Tim Toroian
1 year ago

I hope the China fans are taking note. China has starved millions in the past and the Russian communists starved millions a large number of which were Ukrainians. Communists as a group do not change their spots.

Phillip Ridenour
Phillip Ridenour
1 year ago

Perhaps the lockdowns, the massive unreported deaths and economic disruption are what are keeping China from invading Taiwan. Perhaps there really is a silver lining.

PJ Thom
PJ Thom
1 year ago

The Biden’s are in bed with China so don’t be surprised if similar atrocities don’t start happening in the United States. We have been compromised by Bush, Clinton, Obama, Biden.

Robert
Robert
1 year ago

Going to have to get out the guns and cheerios soon.

Frank Maxant
Frank Maxant
1 year ago

Your articles are SO prolix! They wear me out by the 4th  ¶. I’d spend more time reading them, if only you’d cu to the chase.

Philip Hammersley
Philip Hammersley
1 year ago

I’m surprised that the media is even covering this. After all, since early 2020 they’ve been parroting the ChiCom lie that just several hundred Chinese have died of Covid when that is obviously total BS. As Senile Joe loves Xi so much, maybe he’ll try to lock up some of our cities and let people starve to death. Gotta keep those Chinese checks coming in to Hunter!

Phil
Phil
1 year ago

Let’s have 3 cheers for the SECOND AMENDMENT and the G_d-inspired geniuses who instituted it!

anna hubert
anna hubert
1 year ago

Has anyone called the UN yet?

jake the snake
jake the snake
1 year ago

I just love it when governments use a fake pandemic to kill hundreds of millions of people.

Orville Figgs
Orville Figgs
1 year ago

Hello? Knock Knock. Is anyone awake out there?
Walgreens is rationing baby formula.
I hope no babies starve in the United States.

gin
gin
1 year ago

Look up! God can and will one day wipe all evil from the earth by simply wanting it to be gone. He has that much power. He loves every human, but will only save the ones who want Him. So much is predicted about end times that it looks like we’re in it. Read second Timothy, chapter three, verses one through five. That’s one of many that are obvious. God knows every persons thoughts and even people who have never heard the gospel will be judged according to their good or bad behavior. Ones who have heard it must choose between Christ and the world led by Satan.

Alligator
Alligator
1 year ago

Apparently they are taking away babies as young as one month if someone “tests” positive, and taking people’s pet cats and dogs and bludgeoning them to death in front of the owners because of ZERO COVID!
They would love to do this to us. In fact they are already killing flocks of chickens un the US claiming they test positive.
If we don’t stop complying they will do us in.

Phyl
Phyl
1 year ago

Think about it. This is what the liberal DC demonrats want in America. To obummer, Soros, Hitlery, and the rest of those buzzards, if they want communism, move to China. Let Americans be free.

Deb Rockwell
Deb Rockwell
1 year ago

The globalists and people like Pelosi must be salivating at the idea of doing this to us as well.

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