Just bread and noodles: China’s Covid-19 lockdown distress hits Xinjiang

Yining, a city in the Xinjiang region of far-western China, celebrated a boom in Chinese tourists this summer seeking a sunny respite from Covid-19 worries in their home towns.

Now Yining is under its own grueling, weeks-long pandemic lockdown, with residents calling for help over limited food, and difficulty getting medicine, New York Times reported.

People in the city of 600,000 have been commanded to stay in their homes since early August, forcing many to rely largely on neighborhood officials to deliver supplies.

One resident contacted by telephone said that he received food every five days but that there was little of nutritional value – no fruit, vegetables or meat. He offered only his given name, Zubayr, fearing reprisals from officials over describing the tough conditions, the New York Times reported.

The conditions in Yining that people described online or in phone interviews echoed those of other cities in China that shut down to enforce the government’s commitment to “dynamic zero-Covid-19”, keeping infections of the coronavirus close to zero.

Some Shanghai residents complained loudly about food and medicine shortages earlier this year after officials there were overwhelmed during a citywide shutdown that lasted two months.

It is in the north-west corner of Xinjiang, an ethnically divided region that has faced a crackdown aimed at Uighurs, Kazakhs and other largely Muslim minorities. Late last month, the United Nations’ human rights office said the Chinese government’s mass detentions and other repressive measures in Xinjiang “may constitute international crimes, in particular, crimes against humanity”.

In recent days, complaints from Yining have generated a surge of online comments in China. Uighurs abroad have also shared messages describing poor conditions in quarantine facilities for residents suspected of having had close contact with infected people in Yining, which Uighurs call Ghulja, the NYT reported.

“I think what has happened in Shanghai gets more attention, as it’s a financial hub, and Chinese people can protest,” Ms Rayhan Asat, a Uighur human rights lawyer who is a fellow at Yale Law School.

“But things have gone so extreme and compelled people to call for attention,” she said of Yining and other locked down parts of Xinjiang. “Many don’t have the tools or the audacity to share what’s happening to them individually.”

In the coming weeks, other cities across China may come under similar pressures.

The Communist Party will hold a major congress in mid-October, when delegates are poised to anoint Mr Xi Jinping to another five years as national leader, and local authorities are under intense pressure to stanch outbreaks of Covid-19 that could sully or disrupt the meeting.

Until late July, officials in Yining appeared jubilant about the return of tourists to the area. In past years, many visitors had been deterred by the intimidating security crackdown and warnings across Xinjiang and then by Covid-19, the New York Times reported.