Faced with the extension of the confinement in Shanghai, the American State Department has “ordered the departure of non-essential government employees and their family members from the Shanghai Consulate General,” according to a press release on Monday, April 11. Document urges not to travel to Jilin Province and Shanghai “because of restrictions linked to Covid, including the risk of seeing parents and children separated”nor in Hong Kong, “due to an arbitrary application of the law”. Shanghai imposed strict confinement on its 25 million inhabitants at the end of March, in the face of the rise in Covid-19 cases, but the logistical difficulties are accumulating: many inhabitants complain of a lack of food, access to hospitals is complicated, and more than 100,000 positive people are currently in confinement centers with spartan conditions.
For China, it is a “political manipulation” aimed at denigrating China’s record of handling the outbreak. China is “very dissatisfied and firmly opposed to any instrumentalization and politicization” of this evacuation, lambasted in front of the press a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Zhao Lijian. But the Americans’ decision reflects growing anxiety within the expat community. Many of them packed their bags to leave China during the lockdown.
Embassy says U.S. diplomats informed Chinese authorities “of their concerns for the safety and well-being of American citizens”. Shanghai reported 26,330 cases on Wednesday, a new record, but the rise is now slower, suggesting the outbreak may be plateauing.
The separation of children, a limit
In recent days, departure plans have multiplied among expatriates. “The separation of children is really the limit for me: if you have a child and you cannot ensure his safety, that at any time we can take him to send him to a center, when he does not is not even positive, there is a huge problem”, believes a Frenchman, father of a little girl, who decided with his pregnant wife to leave Shanghai as soon as possible. At the beginning of April, the publication of a video showing dozens of children isolated in a Shanghai hospital, five or six in beds with bars, shocked many in China. Since then, at least one isolation center can accommodate families, but many hospitals continue to separate parents and children in the event of different virological status.
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