Thread by @yangxifan

1/ The moment of truth has come for Chinas's Zero-Covid policy.

I learned by coincidence that Xiong'an, "China's City of the future" near Beijing, was put under Wuhan-style lockdown this Monday. What's stunning: 3 days in, almost nobody in China knows about this.

[THREAD 🧵]

2/ On Jan 24 around 11am, a screenshot started to go viral among the 1,2 million citizens of Xiong'an:

"According to announcement of local CDC, Xiong'an will be put under lockdown starting 11.30am, all shops need to close down. Whoever needs to leave, leave quickly."

3/ The same announcement spread via other screenshots, mostly shared on WeChat. What's curious: The source of the announcement is unclear. No official government account posted it, neither did local state media. With previous lockdowns in Wuhan or Xi'an...

4/ ...local governments announced it on their Weibo and their public WeChat accounts. With Xiong'an: 0 notice. Some people only heard by word of mouth. Some citizens didn't get the memo until late afternoon. By then it was of course too late to leave.

5/ "I wanted to laugh when I saw this notice", one Weibo user wrote. "Do you expect us to travel back in time or what?" The post has been deleted.

6/ Many Weibo posts were deleted since my producer and me first searched for #雄安新区封城. One deleted post just asked "What does lockdown mean?" Another user tried to ask "When will the lockdown in Xiong'an end?" In some cases, not the post but shared articles were deleted:

7/ Xiong'an posted a note on its Weibo account about the visit of Hebei province's vice party secretary on Jan 23rd and 24th though - the post was published one day after the lockdown went into effect. No comments, no likes, no reposts. 🤔

9/ So, what does the lockdown mean? Xiong'an seems to have gone nuclear over 5 reported cases. Delta cases, not omicron. Residents have told @zeitonline that streets have been suddenly blocked with piles of dirt. No cars are allowed, mopeds and pedestrians can pass though.

10/ Guards won't let people exit their apartment compounds unless you have special permission that are hard to obtain. Shops and restaurants are closed. No food delivery, few supermarkets stay open. "I am going to miss Chinese new year celebration with my family as many others.."

11/ "nobody in the the government replies to our inquiries", the construction worker told us. Let's keep in mind that Beijing currently has a much "bigger" outbreak w/ officially 89 cases without locking down millions.

12/ In Beijing, there are currently bit more than 30 000 people under lockdown in southern Fengtai district. An unknown number of people in some hutong blocks in Xicheng are also put under home quarantine. As for the rest of the city, live mostly goes on as normal.

12/ Why is Xiong'an going nuclear? We don't know and the government doesn't tell. Maybe the outbreak is bigger than reported. Maybe the local officials are overly cautious. (They'd have a reason to👇)

13/ Xiong'an isn't just a normal city. Xiong'an is Xi Jinping's pet project. Xi calls it China's "City of the Future": 160 000 construction workers have settled there since 2017 to build big-scale infrastructure projects, high-rises, high-speed railways and factories.

14/ In Xi's vision of China as a future innovation powerhouse, Xiong'an plays a crucial role: Big high-tech companies are supposed to settle there, "attracting talents from all over the world", as Xinhua promises.

15/ Why has Xiong'an not announced its lockdown like any other Chinese city? It's too much of a face loss for Beijing, and especially Xi Jinping. So they rather play it sneaky - and bet on no one noticing it.

16/ People's Daily posted a video few hours ago hailing the successful pandemic prevention in Xiong'an. "People proactively stay at home, proactively report their information." No mention of lockdown #封城 and workers not able to leave the city.

18/ I am puzzled that Beijing thinks that one week before the Olympics, they can get away with locking 1,2 million people at home so close to the capital without international media noticing it. But it has worked for 3 days. I have only stumbled upon this by pure coincidence.

19/ This speaks volumes about the power of the CCP's censorship apparatus these days. And it unfortunately says much about the dire state China reporting is in. Foreign media simply don't have the personnel and the resources to cover even a slice of the important China stories.

20/ If you read German, here’s my @zeitonline story about the secret lockdown of Xiong‘an:

zeit.de/politik/auslan…

21/ Update: This Tiktok video was posted yesterday afternoon, Jan 27

Police drives by, guy in car shouts „Go home! Go home!“

(love the Tiktok user’s sarcastic giggle)

douyin.com/video/70577981…