Thread by @yangxifan

Some footnotes on the reporting process. Of course my claim of a “secret lockdown” is not based only on social posts. We called up numerous residents in Xiong’an: restaurant owners, construction workers, hair dressers. Their accounts of how the lockdown…

https://twitter.com/yangxifan/status/1486709893729959944

… went down on Monday confirmed what was reported on Weibo. The Xiong’an extension of government hotline 12345 confirmed that highways are blocked and train passengers can’t enter and leave - unless you have special permission which are, again, hard to get in this situation.

Some people we spoke to were happy about the lockdown. “We don’t care as long as we’re safe. Everything should just listen to the government and all will be fine.” Others were really upset but hesitant and afraid to speak.

The potential interviewee that stunned me most was a guy who complained heavily on Weibo on the government’s secret handling of the lockdown and that he can’t leave for Chinese New Year…

However when we asked him for an interview, he replied by sending us pictures of Nazi Deutschland. Later he even posted our request on his Weibo…

Along with the question: “How should I answer these instigating questions by these foreign media backed by awful anti-Chinese forces?”

Seems that nationalist Chinese like him would rather suffer an abuse of their freedoms in silence than getting the news out about it which could result in rectifying mentioned abuse.

This is the state of polarization between China and the West. And it really saddens me.

*everyone of course