In China, the Shanghainese are known for three things: their sweet cuisine, their love of shopping, and their sense of superiority over fellow countrymen. So some Chinese people might be quietly enjoying the sight of the city’s populace howling out windows in frustration after being forcibly locked in their flats up for nearly three weeks. But the mess in Shanghai ultimately offers nothing for anyone to cheer about.
Plenty of other cities are under similar restrictions, but Shanghai’s crisis is uncomfortably symbolic. The Chinese Communist Party was founded there in 1921, and it was a refuge for starving peasants during the massive famine Mao Zedong set off in 1958. Its cosmopolitan, wealthy residents were among the biggest beneficiaries of economic reform and thus some of the regime’s staunchest supporters. Now even famous wealthy investors must forage for food in online chat groups.
The mismanagement also adds to worries that the intellectual capacity of the Chinese civil service has been degraded under Xi. Years of crackdowns have taught bureaucrats that overreacting is less risky than under-reacting, so every sparrow gets shot with a cannon, as it were. Anxiety about falling birth rates saw officials put the entire after-school tutoring industry out of business, for example, and the technology sector has been repeatedly pummelled.