Days L23-30: Caged Animals

Over the weekend, posts and stories flooded social media about steel cages being built outside certain compounds and buildings with cases. At first of course I thought it was rumors and fake news, as there was nothing official reported about it. What was reported on expat feeds quickly got shut down. But it turns out these fences were completely real, despite being illegal constructions and fire hazards, human rights violations, etc. etc.

So yes, horrible. This seemed to be targeted towards old compounds. And presto, ours was in that category with the infamous neighboring building #34 with the recent suicide. I wanted photo evidence and it was notoriously hard to get. However, during the covid test this morning I was able to snap a quick photo

Where I normally park my bike. Thankfully I had the foresight to park it underground earlier.

Since we're hearing no official statements on the news about this, I can only speculate on why the fences came in. Assuming of course that people don't just tear the damn things right down, the fences will achieve the following

No food deliveries, you survive based on what's in your house
Good luck if there's a fire
No emergency medical treatment
No access to any repairs, i.e. if the air conditioner breaks down or other appliances
Covid spreading through the plumbing and air circulation, etc.. affecting people in non socially distanced close quarters

For those who remember Wuhan in 2020, this is is exactly like when they came in and welded doors shut of those who had been infected with covid.

Eventually though we discovered things weren't as they appeared. Small holes could be cut through the fences and secret passageways arranged to escape back and forth. The hazmat suits would still go off shift at 7pm and people in our neighboring units found ways to sneak in and out as I saw with my own eyes.

Moreover my colleauge in another compound got drunk and basically destroyed his entire fence. The police gave him a slap on the wrist and his neighbors all a big round of applause.

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Andrea BrownWe have seen the fences on the news, and short clips of people tearing them down with the "quickly removed from social media" subtitle. It's not going unnoticed in the world, if that is any solace.
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2 years ago

Fit SteveActually I wasn't aware this got out to international news. It was quickly censored and taken down, so this is actually encouraging if others outside China are noticing all that.
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2 years ago

Andrea BrownCNN has a correspondent sealed into his apartment in Shanghai. Today’s story had clips and also noted that the censors are overwhelmed. There was an eerie sight of shipping containers being placed to block roadways, just fyi. It’s on all the nightly news channels here.
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2 years ago

Rachael AndersonHow horrible! Like Andrea mentioned we are finally getting some news on what’s happening.
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2 years ago