Residents living in quarantined Chinese cities Xian and Xian, have desperately tried to barter electronics for food as they fear worsening shortages or starvation.
It comes as Yuzhou, a city of 1.2million in central China, was locked down on Tuesday after just three asymptomatic Covid-19 cases were recorded.
Xian’s 13 million residents have been confined to their homes since December 23 and are banned from leaving even for food and essential supplies, having to rely on local officials to drop off care packages.
Recent residents took to social media to express concern about the shortage. Some said that they have yet to get aid while others claimed they’ve taken to bartering.
Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, posted photos and video showing residents trading their Nintendo Switch for instant noodles, steamed buns and cigarettes, and even securing sanitary pads to exchange small amounts of vegetable and dishwashing fluid for apples.
State media disputed these claims by posting footage and pictures of officials claiming that they delivered grocery bags to locked-down residents in December.
Other social media users backed up government claims posting pictures of lorries full of food being unloaded outside buildings and of fridges stacked with fresh produce.
Xian, a popular tourist hub famed for its Terracotta Warriors, has reported 1,600 cases since December 9 – and although this may seem a small figure, Beijing is desperate to stamp out the virus ahead of the Winter Olympics next month.
Residents of quarantined Chinese city Xian have been desperately bartering electronics for food, including this swap of a Nintendo Switch for instant noodles and steamed buns, amid worsening fears of shortages and starvation
Weibo is a Chinese social media website that shows residents exchanging cigarettes for vegetables.
Desperate residents of Xian bartered two packets of cigarettes in exchange for a cabbage, a tomato and a carrot amid the latest lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19
State media disputed these claims by posting footage of officers claiming they would deliver groceries to locked-down residents
Some users backed up state claims posting pictures which purported to show lorries full of food being unloaded outside buildings in Xian
Social media users supported government claims by posting photos of refrigerators filled with fresh produce.
Xian is a 13-million population city that’s a popular tourist destination because of its Terracotta Warriors. The Winter Olympics are held in Beijing, which is approximately two hours away.
China recently saw an increase in the number of infections. The majority were from Xian. Official figures are still very low.
A resident surnamed Wang told Radio Free Asia: ‘People are swapping stuff with others in the same building, because they no longer have enough food to eat.’
According to the outlet, there were desperate trades that included a man trying to swap a tablet and smartphone for rice.
Weibo users called these swaps a “return of primitive society” and claimed that ‘helpless citizens were exchanging potatoes in exchange for cotton swabs.
It comes after Yuzhou, a city in Henan province, announced that from Monday night all citizens were required to stay home to control the spread of the virus.
Three cases discovered in the past few days prompted the announcement.
A Monday statement stated that people living in the middle of the city “must not leave” and all other communities would set up gates and sentinels to enforce epidemic prevention measures.
The city already had announced its intention to stop bus and taxi service and close shopping malls, museums, and other tourist attractions.
China added 175 more Covid-19 cases to its list on Tuesday. These included five from Henan province, and eight in another cluster connected with a Ningbo garment factory.
Even though the number of cases is low, the recent rise in coronavirus infection has been unprecedented in this country. It was the highest level since March 2020.
Tuesday’s Xi’an Tuesday report showed 95 cases. This is a historic Chinese city with 13 million inhabitants. The province of Shaanxi has been in lockdown since last week.
Local officials found to be failing to prevent virus outbreaks from China are frequently fired or penalized. This prompts a string of increasingly strict responses by provincial governments to try and eradicate any instances as quickly as possible.
Two senior Communist Party officers in Xi’an were fired for their ‘insufficient rigour’ in controlling and preventing the spread of the disease.
China’s top disciplinary agency announced last month that several officials had been charged with failing to control the epidemic in Beijing.
In the latest shocking measure, 30 busses turned up in Xian’s Mingde 8 Yingli neighborhood at just after midnight on January 1 and turfed 1,000 people out of their homes and carted them off to grim quarantine facilities, according to local reports.
Weibo uploaded photos showing Chinese health officers in their full PPE, standing alongside a bus convoy flanked with police cars.
A user stated that as many as 1,000 individuals were being carted off. While another claimed that there were 30 buses spotted on their street.
Additional images online show cramped quarters in the quarantine facility, including tiny desks and bunk beds.
Some others claimed the rooms were too cold, and the officials didn’t make proper arrangements to accommodate elderly and children.
“There’s nothing here. We have only basic needs… No one has checked up on us. What kind of quarantine are we in? It was quite a large move, over a thousand, and most of us were elderly and young children. They did not make arrangements for us and just randomly placed us. [here]”,” reads one affected resident.
This is the latest in a series of incidents in this locked-down community to cause fury online. Residents claim they have been starved in their homes due to lack of food from authorities.
Photos uploaded by Weibo from Xian show health officers in PPE standing alongside police cars and busses.
The block is surrounded by buses during quarantining in Xian. Residents are taken from their homes and given their luggage for quarantine.
Last week, officials admitted that the difficulty in supplying essential supplies had been caused by low staff participation and logistical and distribution difficulties.
Last week, one Weibo user wrote that “I am about to die from starvation,” “There is no food in my compound, I can’t leave it, and I am about to run out instant noodles. Please help!”
Another replied, “I don’t want anymore to hear about how everything’s fine,” “So what, supplies can be so plentiful – but they are useless if not given to the people.
Xian official Chen Jianfeng told reporters that the local government had mobilised enterprises to step up community distribution, with cadres supervising wholesale markets and supermarkets.
He stated that ‘We are trying to help in the problem staff turnout and are issuing passes vehicles that guarantee the supply for necessities’.
Xian reported a paltry 90 new local virus cases on Monday, down from 122 cases a day before.
According to official notices, Liu Guozhong, a provincial official, stated that he had entered into a “general state of attack” and added that it was essential to reach the goal of eliminating coronavirus infections from society as quickly as possible.
Images posted online claimed to show cramped quarters in the quarantine facility, including cheap bunk beds.
The grim furnishings of the quarantine areas in Xian
According to local media reports, Xian declared that the Yanta District’s two top Communist Party officers had been fired in order to’strengthen work of epidemic control and prevention’.
China had 161 reported cases. The majority were in Shaanxi, the province where Xian is capital.
No new deaths were reported, so the death total remains unchanged at 4,636.
An Xian resident is screened by a doctor on Sunday
On December 31, two workers crossed the streets in the abandoned city of Xian.
On December 31, a truck sprays disinfectant onto streets in Xi’an, China’s northern Shaanxi Province.