[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.