In the weekly column we take turns writing about innovation and economic trends in Asia.
(Photo: Klawe Rzeczy)
China is a country of internet users. More than a billion people go online regularly, preferably with their smartphones. A lot is therefore also happening online in the current lockdown crisis in Shanghai.
The metropolis of 25 million has been more or less completely sealed off since the end of March. The residents are under house arrest, and some of them have only been allowed to go outside again for a short time since Monday.
Shanghainese and other residents of lockdown cities are taking to social media to vent their anger. Thousands of videos are circulating on the Internet showing how chaotic the situation is in some cases. The people surprised by the draconian lockdown do not have enough groceries, delivery services in the city are hopelessly overwhelmed.
In a country where there is no opposition and where freedom of the press and freedom of expression are repressed, people have to get creative to articulate their anger. Recordings of clashes between Shanghainese and the police or members of so-called neighborhood committees, a kind of block warden network, shared on social networks are distributed hundreds of thousands of times.
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Videos of chaotic quarantine facilities, of pets being painfully killed in the name of Covid prevention, are doing the rounds. Videos of young children being taken to hospitals alone and without their parents are shared thousands of times. Those affected have to be clever and, for example, choose words that are not automatically recognized and deleted by the censors. In China, this game is called “boundary ball” – it’s about moving exactly within the framework that is still tolerated or overlooked by the censors, as the newsletter for Chinese internet culture “Chaoyang Trap” explains.
Chinese censorship erases criticism
These boundaries are shifting rapidly. For example, the hashtag “Shanghai grocery shopping” has now been blocked on the popular Weibo network.
Shanghainese also use technology to help each other. A man brought groceries to his neighbor by drone – oranges, a few lettuce leaves and even half a fish flew through a window into the woman’s apartment. In order to counter the food shortage, residents also use a messenger app to place collective orders and even exchange goods and services. A man in Shanghai offered to pet his cat for 30 minutes in exchange for three oranges.
In addition to the food shortage, the Chinese online magazine “Sixth Tone” reports that some of the imprisoned Shanghainese simply cannot cook – it is too common in the metropolis to simply eat in one of the many cheap restaurants. They are now learning to prepare their own food via videos on the social network Xiaohongshu (“Little Red Book”) or the Chinese Tiktok counterpart Douyin.
In contrast to the creative solutions of the people of Shanghai, the use of technology by the authorities seems helpless rather than innovative. As in Wuhan, autonomous driving systems are used in Shanghai, which bring food deliveries to the residents independently and without human control.
Above all, however, videos show the questionable use of technology. A dog-like robot patrols a residential complex in Shanghai with a hand-held loudspeaker attached to its back with adhesive tape, out of which hygiene instructions are constantly blaring.
It is doubtful whether the indiscriminate use of disinfection robots makes sense.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Drones are used in a similar way. The use of loudspeakers with drones covers a large area, has a long-lasting effect and is “a novel way to build a three-dimensional network for epidemic prevention and control from the air and from the ground,” says one of the controllers commissioned by the city in Chinese media quoted. Drones and robots are also used to disinfect public spaces and interiors in a way that attracts the public. The aircraft are then equipped with a small plastic tank.
However, it is doubtful whether it makes sense to spray disinfectants into the air.
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