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Not a single car was sold in Shanghai last month

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Re: Not a single car was sold in Shanghai last month

#41

Does anybody know what the situation is in the rest of China? I hear there are a couple of strict lockdowns in other cities, and some districts of Beijing. China has in the past justified their harsh measures because the relative majority could live without Covid restrictions (and illness and deaths of course). It would be interesting to see what portion of the population is on lockdown, but it is hard to find good s…

I could provide maybe another data point there. I lived at a village in a east province for some months and has just left. People are living their normal life, albeit ofc a slightest bit of concern to Corona. But people are more worried that they could not make money now and in near future than having the virus. They are not fearful of starving either, not like people living in the city, farms and fields are everywhere. In the worst time when the town has one or two cases, some are restricted from leaving the county and has to do corona test once for every a while. Some roads are blocked. That is all. But I have heard some worse cases recently, where the cases stays high.

Agricultural population accounts for almost a third of the whole population in China.

To quote an old proverb in Chinese: when there is small turbulance, stay in the city; when there is a big riot, live in your hood.

Re: Not a single car was sold in Shanghai last month

#42
post #6

Is it known what variant(s) led to this outbreak and lockdown?

It seems like Omicron is way worse in China because their initial lockdown response had them living in a covid bubble while the rest of the world got infected. Unless they managed to never have another case forever this seemed like an inevitable outcome.

Re: Not a single car was sold in Shanghai last month

#43
I did not realize there is such a strict lockdown even now. Somehow missed that news cycle. However that makes me wonder if the other countries in the world like India and major parts of the US even test now. I mean unless it’s absolutely clear it’s covid they probably don’t test and go on with their lives.

Re: Not a single car was sold in Shanghai last month

#44
post #26

There are rumors than President Xi has been using the coronavirus outbreak as a convenient excuse to knock the "Shanghai clique" down a few pegs. Supposedly he thought the local Shanghai leaders were getting a bit too popular, and insufficiently deferential to Beijing. He's terrified of seeing any alternative power centers develop.

I had a similar thought when the Chinese government recently restricted outside travel for non-essential purposes [0]. It might be a rational decision given their comparably low rate of population immunity, but it should be combined with a reinforced vaccination campaign to make sense in the long term. I can't help but wonder how much their legitimate public health concerns and their obsession to save face regarding…

> should be combined with a reinforced vaccination campaign to make sense in the long term

This would require Beijing admitting its vaccines are garbage. Unlikely.

Re: Not a single car was sold in Shanghai last month

#45

Quoted post unavailable.

When people wonder why some folks are skeptical of climate activism, remember there are people celebrating locking population centers in their homes and being barred from private transportation and then reflect a bit on why people who are generally against authoritarianism aren't gung-ho about taking environmental concerns to their logical state ran solutions.

Re: Not a single car was sold in Shanghai last month

#46
post #6

Is it known what variant(s) led to this outbreak and lockdown?

It seems like Omicron is way worse in China because their initial lockdown response had them living in a covid bubble while the rest of the world got infected. Unless they managed to never have another case forever this seemed like an inevitable outcome.

I also heard, their vaccination program wasn’t that good as elsewhere. Everybody in my bubble in Germany got corona at least once. Everybody were vaccinated at least twice. All cases in all age groups were not worse than average cold.

Re: Not a single car was sold in Shanghai last month

#47
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is talking about how extreme the lockdown is. As other commenters have pointed out, it's normal to expect some non-zero number of sales, so when there's an exact zero, it's very odd. As an example, notice how they said "almost all dealerships" and not "all dealerships". Non-zero numbers are normal. Absolute zero is a very strange signal.

Maybe the data is wrong then? - It was not an exhaustive or comprehensive search - Reporting non-zero would drawn government scrutiny for how a car was sold during a strict lockdown - Industry group reporting zero is trying to draw alarm/attention to helping their industry

You're highlighting why it's interesting. Perhaps some party leader felt this was a statistic worth bragging about to show their total control, not realizing it highlights how their data collection processes seem flawed to casual observation.

Re: Not a single car was sold in Shanghai last month

#48
post #6

Is it known what variant(s) led to this outbreak and lockdown?

It seems like Omicron is way worse in China because their initial lockdown response had them living in a covid bubble while the rest of the world got infected. Unless they managed to never have another case forever this seemed like an inevitable outcome.

They have vaccines. They don't need to get infected to build immunity.

But no vaccine, nor natural infection, is good enough to prevent transmission. Just good enough to prevent severe disease.

And a few added problems are:

- China's health infrastructure is not as advanced. They have very few ICUs per capita.

- Vaccines are not mandatory, and many elderly either choose not to get vaccinated out of health concerns, or their doctor actively advise against getting vaccinated because of health concerns. So vaccination rate among the elderly is not that high, I remember a figure around 50%.

So even with a relatively low mortality rate compared to Delta, with the lacking health infra and the sheer population size, letting Omicron rip through China will still lead to millions of deaths, which they find unacceptable.

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