China Covid: Disputes in Shanghai over evictions under lockdown

As Shanghai enters its third week under Covid lockdown, video has emerged of fights between police and civilians being forced out of their houses.

Quarantine centers are being established in some residential estates.

As Shanghai confronts a new epidemic of the illness, millions of people are confined to their homes. Quarantine is imposed on everyone who tests positive.

However, with over 20,000 new cases filed every day, officials are running out of room.

In recent weeks, the city has transformed exhibition halls and schools into quarantine centers, as well as erected makeshift hospitals.

Analysis by Robin Brant, Shanghai Correspondent

Three weeks into lockdown, some here in Shanghai are angry.

Head to toe in protective suits in an eastern district of the city, officers were forcing people out of their rented apartments so they could turn them into temporary quarantine facilities, all in the name of a war against a resurgent Covid.

But for some it was just too much, their homes sequestered, their desperation easy for all to hear.

A few miles away, there was an organized protest, a bold stand as the lockdown takes hold in a country where you can be arrested for picking quarrels.

They're angry about a local school being turned into another quarantine facility. Police with riot shields forced them off the streets in the end.

This was on a small scale but it's a sign of anger and frustration as this lockdown goes on.

According to journalists, the low number of serious cases in Shanghai has led some to question whether a lockdown is required.

Many residents have gone to social media in recent weeks to express their dissatisfaction with the limitations and shortage of food supplies.

People must purchase food and water online and wait for government deliveries of vegetables, meat, and eggs, which analysts warn are running low.

Delivery services, food store websites, and even the provision of government supplies have all been impacted by the lockdown extension.

Meanwhile, official media says that the Chinese government has dispatched teams to the city to assist more than 660 enterprises in vital sectors of the economy, such as semiconductor and automobile manufacture, in resuming production.

On Friday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated it will "maintain the smooth flow of supply chains" and ensure the delivery of medical items.

The action comes after concerns that sectors of China's manufacturing industry may be forced to shut down, at least temporarily, due to a lack of critical components from Shanghai.

He Xiaopeng, president of Xiao Peng, an electric vehicle manufacturer, said that if production did not resume in Shanghai in May, all automobile plants across the country could be forced to shut down.

In contrast to the rest of the globe, which is attempting to live with the virus, China is one of the last remaining countries committed to eradicating Covid.

However, the spread of the Omicron variety has put pressure on this zero-Covid strategy in recent weeks.