Shanghai’s Covid-19 lockdown is testing public faith in the central government
- Food shortages, loss of livelihood and a sense of abandonment in the city is causing many residents to become disillusioned with the central government and its zero-Covid policy
- Restoring faith in the country’s leadership is crucial for maintaining an image of stability and strength
Netizens have taken to Weibo to air their grievances and appeal to the government for help using the hashtags “Shanghai buy food”, “disappointment with the government”, and “scrambling for vegetables”, which all became popular on the social media platform. The Shanghai government said on April 7 that it was trying to improve the distribution of food and essential goods in response to the growing discontent. However, Weibo blocked the hashtags on April 8.
Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, who was sent to Shanghai by the central government, also kept her messaging consistent with that of Xi, calling for “no hesitation” and to “stop the spread of the virus in the shortest possible time”.
Containing the spread of the virus has become a political task. Even though China’s efforts in 2020 earned Xi clout at an international level, the dispersion of public opinion now underscores the erosion of China’s long-established image of strong governance and runs contrary to its stated goal of unity. The gap between public dissatisfaction and the government’s narrative will be filled by “trust turmoil”.
Putting a precise statistic on public opinion regarding the government’s zero-Covid efforts is not that easy, but what is clear is that the level of trust in the country’s leadership fell significantly to 82 per cent at the time of the first outbreak in 2020, according to a survey by Statista. When conditions began to stabilise in 2021, the trust level bounced back to its pre-pandemic level of 91 per cent.
This swift rebound reflects public satisfaction with how the authorities handled the pandemic. It stands to reason, then, that public trust will be affected by this latest outbreak, and depends largely on how people perceive the government’s efforts.
To regain the trust of the public, the government’s plan has been to mobilise Communist Party members all the way down to the community level – a form of party devolution that can help to secure central authority, while the ultimate decision-making power remains in the hands of the party.
The intention is to ensure that the power of the party permeates everywhere. As Tsinghua University’s Ciqi Mei notes, “squatting officials greatly encourage more participatory behaviour”. By this definition, partisan decentralisation can to an extent improve public cooperation with the zero-Covid policy, thereby rebuilding people’s trust in the government. It is also the embodiment of what the party wants to see.
Jinyuan Li is a research candidate in global affairs at King’s College London