Ahh, yes. The gleaming utopian city of Shanghai. A city of no crime, massive wealth and prosperity for all.

Just... one thing. We can only guarantee this for the slight cost of your freedoms. trust me, it's worth it. Pay attention, stupid 'free' Americans with your guns and drugs.

Oh, errr... ahem... let's just keep this one hush hush, shall we? Nobody wants to see such realities.

The point I'm making here is that China is a country with vast and immeasurable inequalities which the party in control has no interest in fixing beyond what it takes to look good on the global stage.

Well, that has always been the plan. It's always been a somewhat failing plan as 'The West' (Everyone else) isn't as stupid as they had hoped.

But they still do a fantastic job of painting themselves in a positive light enough so that article after article gets published praising the CCP for their accomplishments; ending poverty, efficient defeat of COVID-19, strong leadership.

Above all, Shanghai was their shining star. A poster child that represents all that is good about China. As a result, Shanghai always had a kind of special status. It was somewhat exceptional with its comparatively more relaxed enforcement of dictatorial powers, a financial paradise, a perfect home for foreigners like me. Shanghai, I have always said, isn't really 'China'. It's a mix of its previous international inhabitants: British, French, even Jewish culture lives here.

The problem is, with such a vibrant, comparatively free, highly educated and middle-class population of 25,000,000 people, you get the nasty side effect of people both willing and capable of voicing their frustration, fear and anger when shit hits the fan. So it was always in the CCP's best interest to make sure nothing of the sort ever happened here.

Unfortunately, the shit has indeed hit the fan, and all those little secrets of incompetence, corruption, inequality, brutality and oppression are suddenly highlighted in the blood of its victims.

So today I begin a multi-part report into what life has been and continues to be like in this eternal city of concrete and dust,

How it all began

As a very short history, we were one of the first places after Wuhan to get struck back in 2019. Everybody took it very seriously without any conspiracies and fights against freedom. With more freedoms revoked, we looked out at the rest of the world and seeing how horrible the rules were in comparison, and it was the first and only time I thought to myself that I was more free than the free world right now.

And for years.

Even as other parts of China went into various forms of brutal, dystopian lockdowns, Shanghai had enough management skills to keep it at bay and retain our basic freedoms as a population. We held onto this luxury for years.

That was until Mr Omicron came along recently. I forget when exactly as time has stopped in the last few weeks/decades.

Now, the vast, vast majority of cases are asymptomatic. Of the symptomatic, almost all of them were basically mild colds in a population where supposedly almost everyone was fully vaccinated.

Today for example, there are 253,000 positive cases. Of those, 244,000 were totally asymptomatic.

Well, that escalated quickly

When we started seeing numbers like '30 confirmed cases', targeted lockdowns were already taking place. Any building with a positive case got locked up with the people inside. This included homes, schools, malls, even Karaoke rooms. For anywhere up to 14 days.

This was the traditional approach Shanghai managed to keep things under control with.

Well, then we started seeing numbers like '105' and '158'confirmed cases. Well now we're in big trouble. Residential compounds were starting to get locked up.

We were soon told to start working from home by the government, and I started to notice that numerous colleagues, despite living all across the city, were all being locked in their compounds.

We started seeing data from each district; Xuhui -> 320 cases, Minhang --> 483 cases. My district, right in the heart of the city, was doing comparatively well, but my girlfriend and I were starting to get nervous. We had not yet chosen a place to move in together, so we were still living 15 minutes walk apart.

Should we get locked down without warning, we might not see each other for 7 or even 14 days.

Spoiler alert: that exact situation happened, as her building was caught with a positive case downstairs.

Well. I haven't seen my girlfriend @porkjelly ever since. During her time in a compound lockdown, the government decided to also do its 2-part city-wide lockdown, with the East side and then the West side 5 days later.

After they realised that 4-5 days wasn't enough for a virus to magically disappear, they just kept us in lockdown indefinitely, and that's how it's been ever since. I've been trapped in my home, she has been trapped in hers, and 25 million other people are, too.

As a couple, we're doing fine. We have calls often, play games or watch shows through the phone, synced to each other so we can do commentary. It's kinda nice in its own hellish way.

Everything outside of that, however, is a whole different kettle of fish.

At least it would be if we had access to fish.

You see, this is where I bring back my point about the CCP's desperate need to look good, This lockdown actually has very, very little to do with the virus, nor the safety of the people. It's about maintaining a vision of success on the world stage.

Xi JinPing created the infamous 'zero tolerance' policy, in which every single tiny little virus MUST be eradicated, and he will not settle for anything less.

This was of course before Omicron, and so it seemed, though stupid, at least somehow workable in a country very much designed for this kind of oppression. But Omicron is a different beast, and the concept of zero covid is, at best, totally laughable.

But like all politicians in China, Xi can not, must not EVER be wrong. This is even more important with two kinds of 'elections' coming up for him, in a couple of months and another early 2023 (No, the public don't get a vote). If Xi was to backtrack on Zero-Covid policy, it would be a screaming message that he was wrong.

If he was wrong, then he is weak. And all those in-fighting factions within the party will gain power to overthrow him. Therefore, it's imperative that Zero Covid is a monumental success.

How can one achieve such an impossible goal? Why, take away the people's food and water supplies!

I'm not joking even slightly. Here's how it played out:

• At first, shopping was of course halted. One could only order deliveries online.

• Then online shopping was rendered impossible as 25 million people were all trying to use the apps simultanously.

• Then the government decided this wasn't good enough. Deliveries were still happening, and MAYBE the drivers were spreading the virus. So they shut down delivery men, reducing the workforce to 11,000. Remember, the city has 25 million.

• Then, as I abruptly found out when trying to collect food from my landlord, they decided to prohibit people from collecting any deliveries, even if they had one. I watched two foreigners in my community go out to get theirs, only go go home again empty handed.

They had volunteers in vax suits who would personally bring your deliveries to your door, as the delivery men dropped things off 10 minutes down the road. Well, to this day I've never had that.

I started to realise my dangerously low supply of water. I had 6 litres left. You can't use the tap water here. It's just not safe to drink, boiled or not.

I had no means of getting any water delivered to me. Of the few services who hadn't been forcefully shut down by the government, they were out of stock perpetually. And I really mean that.

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Like everyone else, I was waking up at 5am, opening the apps waiting for the 6am opening time, started rapid fire pressing the payment buttons, only to find I had failed and my products had sold out. There was a second window of opportunity at 8:30am, but with the crashing apps slowing me down, more failure. Day, after day, after day, as I started rationing my food and water supplies more and more.

Finally I had a revelation: there was a water machine outside. It cost about 10p for 5 litres. The problem is, it was slightly out of arms reach beyond the gate which I was now banned from passing through.

This one time, I asked the guard and he let me QUICKLY get water and come back. I thought I was set! Unfortunately the lockdown has just continued on, and on, and on. And I am now once again short on water.

I currently have two large metal bowls outside in the first rainstorm in over 2 weeks, collecting water I can at least give to my cats or maybe cook with.

Because the government, of course, decided the current restrictions were not good enough. So they not only restricted me from going out of the community gate, but they prevented me from getting anywhere near it. Hell, I couldn't get beyond taking out my trash anymore and really I'm not even meant to be outside at all

So in summary:

• A very mild cold which 99.9% of people will either not feel it at all or maybe get a runny nose has struck Shanghai.
• In response, the government has essentially banned us all from eating, drinking and going outside
• I am currently rationing my last slivers of bread, rice and pasta, eating with no condiments or sauces or butter, expired soy sauce, rotten potatoes and browning, shriveling vegetables.

Need I remind you that I live in one of the most populous, modern, expensive, technologically advanced mega-wealthy cities on the planet. And I'm collecting water in metal pans to drink.

There is no war. This isn't Ukraine!

'Ukraine is at war with Russia. In which city are residents starting to have a shortage of supplies? Kyiv, Moscow, Shanghai'

When Civilisation falls, Communities come together

I'll leave this for a slightly more positive part 2 or 3. Though it will only highlight more how shocking this situation truly is - we have to literally use a kind of black market system to illegally acquire rations to survive - it genuinely is so, so heartwarming how amazing everybody is in my community, and others, at how people are helping each other out.