Residents in Ghulja, in China’s west, say food is scarce and they are experiencing forced quarantines and dwindling supplies of medicine and daily necessities after more than 40 days in a virus lockdown.
Under Covid-19 lockdown, Xinjiang residents complain of hunger
Residents of a city in China’s far west Xinjiang region say they are experiencing hunger, forced quarantines and dwindling supplies of medicine and daily necessities after more than 40 days in a virus lockdown.
Users of Chinese social media were riveted last week by hundreds of posts from Ghulja, whose residents shared videos of empty fridges, feverish children, and people screaming from their windows.
The dire conditions and food shortages are reminiscent of a harsh lockdown in Shanghai this spring, when thousands of residents posted online, complaining they were delivered rotting vegetables or denied critical medical care.

But unlike in Shanghai, a glittering, cosmopolitan metropolis of 20 million people and home to many foreigners, the harsh lockdowns in smaller cities such as Ghulja have received less attention.