Shanghai lockdown

After two months of a gruelling strict lockdown, Shanghai has emerged a changed city, some residents say. During the 65 toughest days, some were reduced to begging for food and pleading for access to their young children from whom they’d been separated. The regime wasn’t just brutal, some claim, it was largely fruitless, as the omicron strain of Covid continues to spread now. What’s more the economic fallout for China’s commercial capital, and key supply chains across the country and internationally, are only gradually becoming apparent. What’s the legacy of Shanghai’s zero-Covid experiment?

Producer and presenter: Ed Butler
Studio mix: Neil Churchill
Production coordinators: Iona Hammond and Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy

Image: Workers in protective suits stand at a closed residential area during lockdown, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Shanghai, China, May 23, 2022 (Credit: Aly Song/Reuters)