China’s lockdowns raise legal question

SHANGHAI: China’s two biggest cities yesterday tightened Covid19 curbs on their residents, raising new frustration and even questions about the legality of its uncompromising battle with the virus.

As authorities wrestle with China’s worst Covid outbreaks since the epidemic began, authorities in its most populous city of Shanghai have launched a new push to end infections outside quarantine zones by late May, people familiar with the matter said.

While there had been no official announcement, over the weekend some residents in at least four of its 16 districts received notices saying they were no longer able to leave their homes or receive deliveries as part of the effort to drive community infections down to zero.

‘‘Go home, go home!’’ a woman shouted through a megaphone at residents mingling below apartment towers at one of those compounds on Sunday, reports yesterday said.

Two residents in a fifth district, Yangpu, said they were notified of similar measures and that grocers in their neighbourhoods would be shutting as part of the effort.

Simmering public anger was inflamed by online accounts of authorities forcing neighbours of positive cases into centralised quarantine and demanding that they hand over the keys to their homes to be disinfected, which legal experts denounced as unlawful.

One video showed police picking a lock after a resident refused to open a door.

In another instance, a voice recording of a call circulated on the internet of a woman arguing with officials demanding to spray disinfectant in her home even though she had tested negative.

Prof Tong Zhiwei, who teaches law at the East China University of Political Science and Law, wrote in an essay widely circulated on social media on Sunday that such acts were illegal and should stop.

Such measures should only be taken under a state of emergency, his essay, which he said more than 20 academics had input into, said. — Reuters