[usernomdeguerre]

One aspect of this that i'm hoping a more informed person can comment on:

Are the news reports of anger by shanghai residents directed against the national or provincial(?) government? From what I previously read Shanghai was discussed as a factional stronghold not wholly subservient to the national government (to Xi). That being the case i've been curious if these draconian measures have been imposed from the national level meant to weaken that faction's provincial support?

Given the numbers of deaths being so low and not having read about overwhelmed hospitals, these almost seem like own-goals by the chinese government? But a factional dispute would explain it, in my mind. Does anyone have any better data?

[philliphaydon]

Well Beijing has taken over Shanghai. The number of deaths is miss reported. (If someone has heart disease and dies of covid it’s reported as heart disease, this keeps their numbers Low and explains why America gets 22k deaths from seasonal flu and China gets 50 despite having 4-5 times the population.)

And hospitals aren’t coping, and office blocks are being turned into quarantine facilities that lack basic things like showers.

Even the actual quarantine facilities are being used despite not being completed.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcJFpN3pEN3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M...

https://www.whatsonweibo.com/aerial-view-photos-of-shanghai-...

[thaumasiotes]

> Are the news reports of anger by shanghai residents directed against the national or provincial(?) government?

To the terminology question, Shanghai is a city (市) and not a province (省). However, it is one of four cities that have a special status formally equal to that of provinces. (Imagine if New York City was torn out of the several states it's technically in and made into its own state.) Practically, Shanghai is more important than some of the less significant provinces.

To the substance of the question, whether blame falls on the government of China or more specifically on the government of Shanghai, my view is limited. But I can report that one resident of Shanghai, a longtime friend of mine, is pretty vocal about blaming the Shanghai government.

[AustrianChina]

The Shanghai government was completed sidelined, and the health department top officials replaced by people brought in by Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan. She even attempted to replace Shanghai's health code management software with her own, but that attempt was just abandoned. This article tells the story:

https://austrianchina.substack.com/p/when-the-commissar-came...

[thaumasiotes]

That's not really relevant to who takes the blame, is it?

[throwaway4good]

The Shanghai government will take the blame as they failed to implement the lockdown early and hard policies the rest of China was following.

[lordnacho]

I doubt deaths are very low. I have basically no network there but even I have heard of multiple deaths.