The social contract is tearing. In 2022, the richest city inside the world’s second-largest economy was short on food. Residential gates were sealed, and guards patrolled the perimeters as Shanghai’s citizens awaited a fearful door-knock by white-suited men that could send them away. The restaurants and malls and hospitals were closed or understaffed. Deliveries were suspended. Families were separated. Pets exterminated. At night, from somewhere in the ghost-quiet city, one could hear shrieks of impotence hurled into the pitiless stars.A reporter in China ‘In Shanghai, the Essence of Authority Was Silence’, The American Prospect, 2022
The social contract is tearing. In 2022, the richest city inside the world’s second-largest economy was short on food. Residential gates were sealed, and guards patrolled the perimeters as Shanghai’s citizens awaited a fearful door-knock by white-suited men that could send them away. The restaurants and malls and hospitals were closed or understaffed. Deliveries were suspended. Families were separated. Pets exterminated. At night, from somewhere in the ghost-quiet city, one could hear shrieks of impotence hurled into the pitiless stars.A reporter in China ‘In Shanghai, the Essence of Authority Was Silence’, The American Prospect, 2022
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