Shocking videos reveal scary reality of Shanghai lockdown

Videos showing Shanghai in chaos are being uploaded to Chinese social media faster than they can be censored.

Shocking videos of Chinese residents clashing with “big whites” as they are dragged from their homes have emerged as the country’s zero-Covid strategy continues to cause chaos.

“Bigs whites” are what citizens are calling officials in white hazmat suits, who have been filmed in violent scuffles and arguments with Shanghai residents.

The videos have become so common on Chinese social media that censors are not able take them down fast enough.

Videos of residents clashing with "big whites" are being uploaded at a speed faster than they can be censored. Picture: @DonnaWongHK / Twitter

Shanghai’s 25 million residents have been locked down for over a month with more than half a million infections and more than 500 deaths in the city, according to official figures.

Yet despite cases dwindling into the low thousands in recent days, authorities are still conjuring new control measures.

Those include relocating entire residential compounds to quarantine – even including people with negative virus tests – and denying some food deliveries in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.

“Big whites” are what citizens have named authorities wearing white hazmat suits. Picture: Hector Retamal / AFP

China’s Covid-zero policy requires all cases and their close contacts to be isolated in government facilities.

However, residents of multiple buildings have told AFP they have been warned of forcible movement to quarantine facilities if their neighbours test positive.

“All of us will be taken to a quarantine centre and we’ll have to hand over our keys so they can come in and spray everything with disinfectant,” a British citizen living in Shanghai’s Xuhui district said, declining to be named for fear of retaliation.

Unverified videos seen by Bloomberg include a woman kicking and screaming in a residential compound as she is dragged away, and another of a “big white” using a loudspeaker to tell residents if one person tests positive in their building they will all be sent to quarantine.

Covid positive cases and close contacts must quarantine in centres like this. Picture: Supplied

Shanghai officials claim the city is winning its Covid fight, declaring in past weeks that millions have been released from the strictest levels of lockdown.

But the view from the ground is different. Large neighbourhoods given a brief semblance of freedom have quietly been put back into lockdown, Shanghai residents told AFP.

Many who were placed in low-risk areas have been told that they cannot leave their apartments except to get Covid tests.

Compounds are ordering “silent periods” or curfews of as long as seven days during which people are forbidden to even order deliveries of personal items, according to official notices seen by AFP.

Last month, Shanghai residents shared footage of what they said was police ordering them to leave their homes so the buildings could be used for quarantine. Video: Jennifer Zeng/Twitter

Residents were filmed being dragged away. Video: Jennifer Zeng/Twitter

The confronting videos that have emerged this week are not the first to gain attention outside of China.

Last month, police in hazmat suits surrounded screaming residents, reportedly ordering them to leave their homes so the buildings can be used as Covid quarantine sites.

Residents could be seen kneeling on the ground or with their hands above their heads. Some were grabbed by those in the hazmat suits as onlookers screamed.

Earlier, a haunting video went viral of frustrated residents screaming from windows of their high-rise apartment buildings while unable to step foot outside.

A video of a pet Corgi killed because its owner had tested positive made international headlines.