Beijing. authorities here announcing mass testing. triggering panic buying at stores with most items whiled from shelves, and long lines of people anxious to stock up. wary of the shortage in shanghai. that was captured in viral recordings that went viral on social media this week. there ain t no water, no food, says one man. censors quickly removed it. the government here insisting lockdown measures will only will be lifted when covid is eliminated. until then, authorities are building fences and tightening control. nbc s january miss macke fraher there. and writing why no one dare tell china s xi the lockdown isn t working. and wuhan early in 2020 and
Trumpeted that success to the world. now more than two years later, the omicron variant is running rings around beijing s zero covid. the very rigidities of the political system built by the chinese communist party are hampering the country s ability to anything other than a lockdown whac-a-mole. as the lockdown in shanghai has shown. the editor of that op-ed joins us now. also with the former director of the committee to protect journalists now a fellow at the center at columbia generalism school. joel simon. joel and robert are co-authors of the new book infodemic, how censorship made lis sicker.
Lockdown. metal fencing put up around some apartment buildings to keep residents from getting out. security guards on duty 24/7. authorities call it hard quarantine. the people are fed up. videos posted in social media showing some pulling the fences down. much of the city locked down for over a month now and struggling. with isolation and lost income. this man not wanting to be identified to avoid trouble with local officials. it s going to take an even longer, if the most basic problems are not getting solved. reporter: the world s largest container port still idle, with more than 500 ships waiting to dock. with all of the covid rules keeping shanghai at a standstill, covid still rampant. 21,000 cases added saturday and 39 deaths. and lockdown fears spreading in