Coronavirus: To Tame It, Mao-Style Social Control Blankets China

By artappraiser on Mon, 02/17/2020 - 2:53am |

To stop the spread of the coronavirus much of China has effectively shut down. What’s not been fully appreciated is how extensive the closures are. By our calculations 760 million are living under some kind of residential lockdown. https://t.co/ZuO31QVi6g
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

URL:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/15/business/china-coronavirus-lockdown.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

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awesome "you are there" reporting:

It’s one of the largest social control experiments ever anywhere, even in China. To do it, Beijing is relying on local party officials, police, and busybodies known as grid workers. They’ve effectively closed down many cities to outsiders. This is a station at a closed city: Yiwu pic.twitter.com/9x27uDjxHI
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

There are blocks of all kinds. Some cities don’t let anyone in who doesn’t have a fixed address. Some force outsiders into 14 day quarantines. Building complexes have checkpoints. Some don’t allow guests. Others limit how often people can leave with makeshift passes like below. pic.twitter.com/Ufqfv11VJo
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

Likely more than 100 mln people are being limited to how often they can leave their apartment. Rules can be random, enforcement arbitrary. That’s what happens when you have so many grassroots communist party types enforcing rules. At a village level, many have set up barricades. pic.twitter.com/DnBqB6QcZx
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

So what kind of numbers are involved to pull this off? The grid network cuts up China into tiny quadrants. A person in each area keeps tabs on people. It’s the human part of the surveillance state. Normally it’s quite irrelevant. Not anymore. Huge manpower has been mobilized. pic.twitter.com/it6PKG4ec5
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

In Zhejiang, 330K grid workers are on the job, basically more than 1 for every 200 people in a province of 60 mln. Guangzhou has 177k, Hubei has 170k, Sichuan has 308k and Chongqing has 118k. They do everything from manning checkpoints to delivering food to the quarantined. pic.twitter.com/20myTTORDc
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

At first cadres let Bob Huang leave his house once every two days. He pulled some strings and got an exemption. Nearby is a land of fiefdoms. One village only lets in those who speak their dialect. An immigrant hiked 4 days to get around roadblocks. https://t.co/oRFZ9rNHQF
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

Bob said volunteers helped call police and run down a drunk man who stayed out overnight. They also delivered a Happy Meal to a quarantined kid. They’re part warden, part caretaker. It’s a setup reminiscent of Mao’s mass mobilizations. Rules are very arbitrary and inconsistent.
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

The reason this happens is a sort of bureaucratic chain reaction. “The central government put huge pressure on local officials. That triggered competition between regions, and local gov’ts turned from conservative to radical,” said one expert. That’s how you get checks like this: pic.twitter.com/j9tfiG1kA9
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

“Even when the situation is relieved...the machine is unable to change direction or tune down.” Indeed. Local officials are in an impossible position. Beijing has told them to restart the economy AND fight a people’s war agains the virus. Meanwhile the CCP is punishing laggards. pic.twitter.com/Ez9KYcMj80
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

Walking back a mass mobilization will be tricky and undoubtedly take time and trust. Meanwhile there are consequences. Village roadblocks inhibit transport. Checkpoints scare those who should be checked. No idea how this all plays out, but China wil be different after. pic.twitter.com/DM88ZY6pC2
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 15, 2020

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/17/2020 - 3:04am

Mozur does great retweets, too, picks out the best for those following:

It’s said daily Shanghai-Beijing flights are down to three. It used to be one flight every 15-20 min. Now pilots are getting laid off. Only a few yrs ago, there was such shortage of pilots that PRC airlines often sue those who jumped ship to another one for higher pay. https://t.co/IWlBBgxGsb
— Ben Chiu (@benjaminqiu) February 17, 2020

In a new survey out today, almost half of 100+ manufacturing firms in Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing tell AmCham Shanghai that shutdowns due to covid-19 have already "seriously" impacted their global operations. Four in five have too few workers to run a full production line. pic.twitter.com/jqCUB8kXTF
— Stephanie Studer (@studersc) February 17, 2020

It looks like some exhausted Chinese local officials are running out of ideas for good coronavirus-related propaganda slogans. This banner reads: "" or "Don't go out! Don't go out! Just don't go out!" pic.twitter.com/G2vk7M9UO0
— Andrew Batson (@andrewbatson) February 17, 2020

“How can one not lament the fact that Heaven does not deliver justice? Although, if truth be told, Heaven too suffers along with all of us.” https://t.co/bgsnANCuXi
— Paul Mozur (@paulmozur) February 16, 2020

The #CoronavirusOutbreak is exposing the hubris of our Big Data society, where we expect everything to be measurable and quantifiable.

My column today, and a short thread:https://t.co/Pthp3DNLE2
— David Fickling (@davidfickling) February 16, 2020

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/17/2020 - 3:12am

I've noticed that this Brit scientist's very negative prediction is quite popular:

Here's a coronoavirus researcher saying that it's realistic scenario that up to 60 percent of the world's population could contract it https://t.co/Q7G6JsiOUG
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) February 17, 2020

When you think rationally on it and not panicky doom, it's not unrealistic, think of like the flu without our vaccines. Even with vaccines, a lot of people still get flu every year and a significant number die from it.

Edit to add thought-provoking reply to the above:

The discourse around this has been so bizarre

We've had dozens of very credentialed experts saying that it's probably going to be a big deal soon, and they're being treated like they're from Infowars
— Clockwork Whale (@clockworkwhale) February 17, 2020

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/17/2020 - 3:27am

Global breakdown and recoveries doesn't look too bad...

https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020/02/the-latest-coronavirus-cases/

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 02/17/2020 - 5:51am

Chinese film director and his family killed by #coronavirus in Wuhan, China. And this could be just a tip of the iceberg of how serious the situation really is. https://t.co/YG8eM6erAf via @variety
— Vivienne Chow (@VivienneChow) February 17, 2020

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/17/2020 - 6:12am

Coronavirus: To Tame It, Mao-Style Social Control Blankets China

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