China Bolts Residents Reluctant to Lock Down Into Apartments in Desperate Pursuit of Zero-COVID
The brutal tactics for people who refused to comply with lockdown rules emerged in social media videos, stoking outrage.
STR/AFP via Getty Images
Chinese authorities are now using bolts and wires to forcibly lock residents into their apartments to prevent them leaving their homes, in brutal COVID-prevention strategies that recall the darkest early days of the pandemic. Caixin Global, an independent news agency quoted by the Telegraph, said the radical measures, the latest salvo in Beijing’s quest for zero Covid, were being reserved for people who declined to voluntarily lock themselves into their apartments—and hand over the keys. The South China Morning Post showed astonishing video of iron bolts being installed on the outside of apartment doors and strong metal wires drawn across them. The video, allegedly taken in the northern Hebei province, emerged as Beijing increased COVID restrictions amid fears the city is heading for a punishing Shanghai-style lockdown. Shanghai is still experiencing close to 5,000 local infections a day despite a grueling five-week lockdown.
To prevent residents leaving their flats during lockdown, some pandemic workers used wires and iron bolts to barricade the doors from the outside in northern China’s Hebei province. pic.twitter.com/YTiHn01o1B
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) May 3, 2022
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