{Extra} China Shutdown Horrors

The topics we have discussed in my media law class has me taking notice of things I hear on the news and see on social media. Last night on the Tucker Carlson show, there was a great deal of talk about the covid shutdowns taking place in China. The people of China are protesting against the covid policies involving testing and lockdown procedures.  The people are calling for the removal of President Xi Jinping which speaks volumes. This comes after residents died after being locked inside a building that caught fire. Law enforcement in Shanghai has even gone as far as to enclose complete areas of the city using spiked fencing to prevent people from leaving. Temporary shelter areas are being constructed across several cities which look a lot like modern day concentration camps. 

John Ratcliffe, the former director of National Intelligence spoke about China being a complete surveillance state with little to no regard for the rights of citizens. Building massive quarantine camps, separating people and making them sleep in public bathrooms, separating children from their families is just some of what is going on. In the city of Shanghai some 25 million people were held up in their homes for  months. Suffering from shortage of food the lockdowns took their toll and the people understandably are beginning to break their silence. 

In my opinion, the lockdowns experienced here in the United States were a bit much. Closing businesses and schools, recommending people stay home and avoid one another, mandated mask wearing, and of course all the misinformation that was fed to the American public about the virus.

Apparently the Chinese government has taken over all social media so to censor what information people are receiving and having access to. A recent BBC report stated how, "Tens of millions of posts have been filtered from search results, while media are muting their coverage of Covid in favour of upbeat stories about the World Cup and China's space achievements." (BBC, 2022) 

Unbelievably, people here in the United States, like Dr. Fauci, famous celebrities and even people within our own government are not speaking out against the Chinese leader for what is going on in China. How is that even possible and what am I missing? Isn't China somewhat of a dictatorship that suppresses free speech? And doesn't China really dislike the United States and especially dislike the idea of a democracy? If this is so, how does our own government turn a blind eye to the horrors taking place in China? Wake up people!