While economists in the west often theorize a future of Chinese control, recent protests indicate that China might not be as powerful as they’d like the world to believe. In Shanghai, the most industrialized and expensive city in China, protests have erupted over food shortages.
Footage posted to Twitter showed people in the locked-down city banging pots on their balconies to decry a lack of food and other items, France24 reported.
“We want supplies,” the quarantined residents reportedly chanted.
In another video posted to the Chinese social media platform Weibo, a drone appears to warn the residents to cease protesting.
“Please comply with COVID restrictions. Control your soul’s desire for freedom. Do not open the window or sing,” the message from the drone said.
Other footage in recent days has shown residents struggling with security personnel and hazmat-suited medical staff at some compounds, with occupants shouting that they needed food supplies.
Shanghai resident Lucy Lu, 41, said she and her parents had only received one food package handed out by local officials in the past 20 days, the Financial Times reported.
She had started a group chat to buy milk but had to cancel the order after a neighborhood committee declined to arrange couriers out of fear of infections.
The government has acknowledged that there have been delays in distributing supplies.
“It is true there are some difficulties in ensuring the supply of daily necessities,” said Liu Min, the deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, on Wednesday, the BBC reported.