As far as I can tell, the sentiment on the ground is not one of doom and gloom. Chinese social media is not filled with stories of death and despair. What I see are mostly people joking about feeling FOMO (fear of missing out) because they haven’t gotten infected.
Cynics might say this is so because the censors have been extra working hard to scrub the Chinese Internet clean of negative content. The fact of the matter is that censors can only limit the amount of bad press – they will hardly ever be able to erase everything.
Take for instance the black and white video titled Shanghai 404 that went viral in April when the city was locked down. Though the censors were furiously trying to prohibit access to this six-minute clip, the video nevertheless found its way to the phones of many.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about China, it is that the harder the authorities try to censor something, the harder the masses try to disseminate it. Just like Omicron, dissent cannot be completely stamped out.
Presently, dissent and traces of censorship are barely evident. What I’ve noticed is that people are more concerned about preparing for the Chinese New Year and booking that coveted overseas flight now that quarantine for inbound travellers will be scrapped starting from Jan 8.
I genuinely think that many locals are just glad that China is moving on. The rest of the world should also feel relieved and happy about this new development.
Look, the Chinese economy is the second-largest in the world. When China is in the doldrums, the rest of the world suffers, too.
Alywin Chew is a media professional and author who has lived in Shanghai for the last eight years.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
