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Something Is Rotten In The State Of Shanghai’s Latest COVID Lockdowns
Zubu Brothers ^ | 4-17-2022 | QTR’s Fringe Finance

Posted on 04/17/2022 1:20:42 PM PDT by blam

Make no doubt about it, there’s something seriously disturbing about the state of the recent Covid lockdowns taking place in Shanghai. Even for China.

Here is what the outbreak looks like, if we are to believe the numbers coming out of China. You’ll have to excuse me for being frank, but I simply don’t believe them. China has lied about nearly everything since the beginning of the pandemic, and they certainly don’t have the rest of the world’s best interest in mind now that they are allying with Russia economically.

Source: NY Times

Rather, I believe the numbers are likely being exaggerated one way or the other (just as I believe China does with their macroeconomic data), in order to meet the needs of whatever agenda the CCP is trying to push.

Here we are, two years into Covid, with ample time behind us to have studied the virus, developed vaccines, boosters and therapeutics and allowed for natural immunity to spread – and China is locking down the city of 26.3 million people at the first sign of a couple cases of Covid.

Photo: NBC News

The actions China has taken to implement this round of lockdowns have been dystopian and Orwellian, to say the least.

For example, according to the NY Times:

◾all international flights to and from Shanghai have been halted

◾many roads to the city’s two airports have also been closed

◾the government performed P.C.R. tests on 25.67 million people

◾the government has not allowed residents to go to grocery stores

◾the government has put together tens of thousands of cots in two convention centers as quarantine centers – but they don’t have showering facilities

China is also, once again, sealing people in their homes. Videos on social media “show trapped residents howling and screaming from inside high-rise buildings at night,” The Independent wrote this week.

(please go to the site to see the video)

According to social media posts, the city is even using drones to try and calm the nerves of angry residents.

“Please comply [with] covid restrictions. Control your soul’s desire for freedom. Do not open the window or sing,” this drone is reported to be saying.

There are a innumerable disturbing things about the dystopian way this alleged outbreak is being handled, but none more pressing is the question of why it is being handled the way it is.

It felt like, heading into the spring, the world was over the idea of Covid. Mask mandates and vaccine mandates were being lifted, businesses were starting to recover and we were heading into the warmth of summer with the attitude that we now knew the risks of Covid and that it was time for every person to take care of themselves.

So, why such a drastic overreaction by China? Why continue the country’s completely irrational and inane “Covid Zero” policy at this point?

It’s simply doesn’t make any sense – even for China. In fact, the country’s extremely dramatic and overzealous response feels so abnormal that it made me wonder yesterday whether China was simply using it as a tool for a state sponsored power grab that it had long planned.

I also wondered if the drastic measures – similar to the measures we saw at the beginning of Covid from China – were a sign that the country knows something about the virus that the rest of the world still doesn’t.

Certainly, nobody thinking reasonably believes such a drastic reaction to this virus, which has already wreaked its first round of global havoc but has settled down and become a way of life in places like Florida and the Nordic states where they’ve allowed herd immunity to run rampant, is warranted.

Yesterday, on Twitter, those were the only two alternate explanations I could conceive of for China’s actions.

But a third wild idea popped into my head yesterday afternoon that I wanted to also bring up.

What if China is purposely shutting down its country to wreak havoc on the global supply chain even further and to exert its power over the quality of lives of the western world?

I’ve talked about why I think China and Russia are going to be breaking off of the current monetary system and essentially starting a new economy.

I’ve written about how backing the ruble and potentially backing be digital Yuan with gold could be one way for these countries to exert their influence and stand alone on a global stage economically.

I’ve also warned about the pitfalls of the United States not having enough productive capacity and relying on importing from China too much. Don’t think China doesn’t understand the dynamics of this relationship, either.

What if China wants to not only exert its influence by backing its currency, but also by keeping its production means on a tighter leash: more for the benefit of its own people, and less for the benefits of Americans exporting dollars. How would China show the rest of the world in a passive, non-confrontational way, exactly just how much power they have over our quality of life?

At this point it appears that China isn’t reserving its productive capacity for its own citizens. After all, reports of food shortages and riots breaking out in Shanghai have been ubiquitous.

But there’s a non-zero chance that this may be propaganda or collateral damage that the country has to let happen in order to make the rest of the world think that its people are suffering alongside of them, when they cauterize supply chains for products heading elsewhere in the world.

And if you immediately write off such game theory as conspiratorial and harebrained, you may be right. But you’re also likely underestimating the Chinese Communist Party.

No matter what the explanation, China is overshooting the mark with this latest round of lockdowns, even for “Covid Zero” standards.

Videos leaking onto social media appear worse and more dire than the ones during the original lockdowns of 2020.

Is it really going to be the long-term ongoing policy of the CCP to try and keep zero Covid cases in a country with 1.4 billion people? Even for an unreasonable unilateral dictatorship, that’s a bit much.

Photo: Reuters

If I had to bet it all today on why China is locking down the way that it is, I would take one of these three scenarios over actual implementation of the world’s most irrational health policy:

1.The CCP is simply trying to usurp more power

2.There’s something about Covid that China knows that the rest of the world still doesn’t know

3.China is looking for an excuse to slow its production to put pressure on the Western world at a time when it is trying to separate further, economically, from the West

Either way, the more I see out of the country with every passing day, the more it becomes clear to me that something is rotten in the state of Shanghai’s latest Covid lockdowns.


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: according2nytimes; china; covid; grainofsalt; lockdowns; nytimes; nytimessource; shanghai; shanghailockdown; shortages; supplychain; zerohedge; zombieoutbreak; zombies; zubu
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1 posted on 04/17/2022 1:20:42 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam

It’s meant to condition us to accepting it when our professional affirmative-action bureaucratic parasite overlords do it here.


2 posted on 04/17/2022 1:23:34 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Depopulate the depopulationists. --FJB)
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To: blam

Listening to Bannon’s War Room, they suggest this is the ChiComs looking for an excuse to consolidate power under the aegis of a pandemic and get rid of political enemies.

It sounds as plausible as anything I have heard, at least more plausible than the stupidity of thinking this type of authoritarian and draconian lockdown is going to work at minimizing the effects of the pathogen.

Only idiots would think it would work, and I don’t think they are idiots.


3 posted on 04/17/2022 1:25:39 PM PDT by rlmorel (Democrats running things is termite infestation, and the exterminator won't be here for 3 years.)
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To: blam

I still think it’s possible that the ChiComs hope to achieve in 2022 what they achieved in 2020 - panic the West into COVID restrictions that will allow yet another election steal in America. This would be so Biden and his handlers will remain unencumbered to continue their jihad to weaken America and Americans.


4 posted on 04/17/2022 1:32:42 PM PDT by House Atreides
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To: blam

I don’t doubt for a minute, they would cordon off a section of the city and starve people to death for propaganda’s sake.

So I think the lockdowns are real, not staged, but that the reason for them is not what it appears.


5 posted on 04/17/2022 1:35:39 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: rlmorel

I look at logic and common sense. Could it be Corona is NOT what they are fighting? Another , more serious plague has escaped their labs? Or some other deadly virus? Corona IS NOT DEADLY, proven. Heck, I am in my 60’s and a Pureblood ( not vaxed) , my son and I sailed through it, him 2 days fever, me, 5 days in bed- back in 7 days.
Something stinks, again, and again….


6 posted on 04/17/2022 1:35:43 PM PDT by delta7
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To: blam

“What if China is purposely shutting down its country to wreak havoc on the global supply chain even further and to exert its power over the quality of lives of the western world?”


Paging Capt. Obvious.


7 posted on 04/17/2022 1:39:30 PM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: blam

“to meet the needs of whatever agenda the CCP is trying to push.”


The author understands little about China beyond what he might have read somewhere.

The concept of infallibility is associated in the West with religion, but in China infallibility is invested in the Emperor.

Xi Jinping is the Emperor and as such his edict of zero covid tolerance cannot be wrong. He is also up for re-election by the top Party Elite; it would never do to have him lose face.

So there can be no cases in China and any cases found must be controlled - no matter the human cost. Simple as that.

Oh and its not just Shanghai, but all of China.


8 posted on 04/17/2022 1:39:38 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: blam

“Videos leaking onto social media appear worse and more dire than the ones during the original lockdowns of 2020.”


Worse than the leaking - which was shut down early in 2020 - they’re promoted by social and mainstream government media alike.

That’s a tell.


9 posted on 04/17/2022 1:41:55 PM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: blam

If you are the CCP, what good is being a totalitarian regime if you cannot act in
a totalitarian way?


10 posted on 04/17/2022 1:42:24 PM PDT by buckalfa (An old man who plants a tree whose shade he will never see is the primary component of civilization.)
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To: blam

biden proved the kung flu is a scam when he waltzed into the white house, disbanded trump’s “operation warp speed”, opened our southern border, and continues to spread over 2,000,000 nondocumented unvaccinated invaders across our country during a supposed “global pandemic” while anthony fauci, the cdc, the nih, the world health organization, the enemedia, hollywierd, and the majority of our elected representatives sit back and watch...


11 posted on 04/17/2022 1:43:03 PM PDT by heavy metal (smiling improves your face value and makes people wonder what the hell you're up to... 😁)
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To: delta7

“Could it be Corona is NOT what they are fighting? Another , more serious plague has escaped their labs? Or some other deadly virus?”

That is my take as well.

I always watch what people do and ignore what they say.

They are acting like they have a real serious contagious disease they are dealing with, not the coronavirus sniffles.


12 posted on 04/17/2022 1:45:58 PM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: delta7

From the article: “ China is looking for an excuse to slow its production to put pressure on the Western world at a time …”
————
At a time Russian sanctions have caused havoc in world trade. The Russians have all they need, ( grain, food, NG, diesel, metals, commodities). They just signed a 20 year agreement for Russia to supply them food and grains….Vegetable Joe sealed our fate with weaponizing the dollar and sanctions. Vlads return sanctions on the west, cripples the west.
My bet, 1)China slows export to the US under the guise of a non lethal virus, avoiding a weaponized dollar and sanctions.
2) China slows/ tapers US supply as China/ Russia weaken us any way they can….war, metals shortages, energy shortages, food shortages,…

Either way it appears Vlad ( and Xi ) slowly and methodically say “ Checkmate”…..what is Vegetable head going to do?


13 posted on 04/17/2022 1:47:04 PM PDT by delta7
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To: blam

Biden has essentially driven Russia into the arms of China, which was the big enemy and rival of Russia, historically and even very recently.

Biden (well, really, I mean whoever is behind that empty husk) has virtually destroyed the dollar as a trustworthy currency. He has politicized it and made it a fiat currency based on an unreliable country. This is the modern US, an unreliable country that doesn’t honor contracts and can shut down any transaction at any moment for political reasons.

Behind this in Shanghai is China’s attempt to destroy one of the last remnants of Chinese capitalism and relative freedom, combined with China’s confidence that whatever it does will be copied by the leftist west.

The leftist west hates Russia not because Russia is a threat, but because it separated from Communism and made the entire world realize the cruel stupidity of Communism. Putin may be an autocrat but that’s a problem for the Russian people, not for us.

China is confident that Biden and Co. will follow along with the “Chinese response” the way they did the first time. And because this gives the Dems the chance to totally mess up the midterm elections, I suspect Fauci and the gang will be out there very soon.

I’ve already heard ominous rumblings about both “avian flu” and the “Philly [covid] variant,” so you know they’re setting up something soon and very soon.


14 posted on 04/17/2022 1:48:42 PM PDT by livius
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To: metmom

Agreed. It was even before it was declared ‘pandemic’ that I posed the question in early 2020 to a friend, akin to:

“Given the CCP history under Mao, how likely is it for China to sacrifice an entire city for its ambitions?”

Obviously, that didn’t come to pass.

But the larger question begs:

If this is meant “to wreak havoc on the global supply chain even further and to exert its power over the quality of lives of the western world” and “China breaking off of the current monetary system and essentially starting a new economy”...

...then why didn’t they do this in 2020???


15 posted on 04/17/2022 1:49:36 PM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: cgbg
Another , more serious plague has escaped their labs?

If they've done the virus thing again, with a different virus, then maybe we ought to nuke the Three Gorges Dam and say, "Oops. My bad."

16 posted on 04/17/2022 1:51:45 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (It's hard to "Believe all women" when judges say "I don't know what a woman is".)
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To: blam

Shanghai is the base of an opposing faction in CCP politics known as the Shanghai Clique. With a party congress scheduled for later this year where important positions are handed out or extended, a firm lockdown is a way for Xi Jinping to demonstrate to the CCP that his opponents are powerless to stop or constrain him.


17 posted on 04/17/2022 1:59:52 PM PDT by Chad_the_Impaler
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To: PIF
"Oh and its not just Shanghai, but all of China."

Well, if true, it will explain what I read in one of the 'China COVID' articles that there are 30 million truckers in China in lockdown. That's a lot of truckers...even for China.

18 posted on 04/17/2022 2:01:27 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam

A few youtube videos would educated the author of this article. The PRC is not locking down the entire city. They are locking down individual residential buildings. If nobody is positive in the building you are not locked down.

The PRC is misguided and wrong. But they are not lacking down 24 million people.


19 posted on 04/17/2022 2:03:48 PM PDT by Fai Mao
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To: logi_cal869

then why didn’t they do this in 2020???
————-
Many reasons we will not know. Fact: the West is now weakened due to the Covid lockdowns , supply breakdowns, energy shortages, dollar break down due to the West sanctions ( Vlad has successfully imposed his return sanctions).
With the Ukie war cheerleaders prolonging the war, it weakens NATO and the US with having to prepare for an imaginary Russian invasion on NATO, we can not fight two theaters.
It will become evident under Vegetable head Joe’s leadership, the US has become severely WEAKENED, both financially and militarily……we are being checkmated….time for the world’s America haters to make a move.
Prepare accordingly.


20 posted on 04/17/2022 2:08:11 PM PDT by delta7
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