Xi?s strict covid policies prompt rumblings of discontent in China

Officials confiscated house keys to prevent isolation jailbreaks, while the empty homes of those put into centralized quarantine have been turned upside down as they are doused with disinfectant.China shuts down talk of covid hardship; users strike backThe escalating disruption of daily life from China’s “zero covid” policy, promoted at the highest level, risks alienating a population that has come to rely on what some scholars describe as the Communist Party’s implicit contract with the public: The leadership supports the economy, allows people to get rich and stays out of everyday affairs in exchange for political quiescence.“The tacit agreement between us has been broken,” said a Shanghai-based Chinese journalist who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions. In a video posted to the microblog Weibo on Monday, a homeowner wanders through his apartment noting everything that went missing during disinfection, including food from the fridge, bedsheets, curtains and clothes.The most-liked comment beneath the video read “Ah, I’ve seen this in history books, its search and confiscation,” a reference to a common practice during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, when radical “red guards” would raid homes in search of banned items.While Xi’s style of governing remains distinct from Mao’s preference for chaotic mass movements, scholars say both leaders share a preference for political campaigns to mobilize the whole society.In a sign of how fed up residents are, middle-class Shanghaiers like man in the red raincoat are now appealing to the rule of law to push back against state overreach.He was possibly inspired by Chinese jurist Luo Xiang, who, in a lecture that went viral, explained how state power should extend only as far as what is codified in law.