I’m at the scene of last night’s extraordinary anti Covid-zero protest in Shanghai. Many people are gathered here quietly watching. Lots of cops. Two girls laid flowers which were promptly removed by police. One man drove past with middle finger up at police. #shanghai some small crowds are gathered on the sidewalks quietly watching the scene and the police presence. I’ve seen several people with flowers. One girl was holding a blank piece of paper.

Not meant as a moan, but merely an observation of my 2022, which feels a bit wasted, mostly due to covid measures.

1) Couldn’t get back into 🇨🇳 for 2 months due to border/ flight restrictions. Finally after 2 blood tests, 10 days in 🇨🇦, 9 PCRs and 15 days of quarantine, I’m in… 2) after finishing 15 days of quarantine (originally meant to be 21 but shortened as hotel needed for local cases), the strict “4 day” Shanghai lockdown starts and actually lasts two months - the only trips allowed outside are PCR tests.

In some cases, “companies are even questioning whether it is responsible for them to deploy foreign staff to China when the numerous restrictions mean they are unable to guarantee a basic duty of care for them and their families,”

wsj.com/articles/expat… Good piece on situation for foreign business,
diplo missions, teachers and expats in general. "With little sign of a major shift in policy after 2½ years, many Western companies and embassies have concluded that the challenges they face in the country are no longer temporary."

The city of Sanya on Hainan Island has gone into full lockdown after a surge in covid-19 cases. Hainan is known as the ‘Hawaii of China’. 80k tourists are stranded according to local media. As @Tominmedill points out, Hainan was quick to welcome quarantine-free entry to travellers from Shanghai, including me, after lockdown…

https://twitter.com/Tominmedill/status/1555773895654879232

After a few months away, this is where my journey back to China starts - Chinatown in Soho, central London where I’ve got to get a PCR test 7 days before travel (done) and two more 48 hours before travel (today) from a clinic approved by the Chinese embassy. I’ll make this a thread and update as I navigate China’s strict covid-zero border (for those of you who are not sure what that entails). Looking forward to being back, but it’s a long haul - and probably about a month door to door. This includes 3 weeks of quarantine. More later.

Two minutes of searching and I’ve found “Wilson Edwards” on Facebook. He recently joined, has just three friends and has only posted once. That post has been widely cited by Chinese state media. 👇

https://twitter.com/SwissEmbChina/status/1425042973289504770

I’ve done a quick reverse image search of the profile photo for the account. Seems to be from a website called No Man Before and is a picture of the Ratcliffe Science Library in Oxford. Compare below 👇 nomanbefore.com/oxford-vs-camb…