In Wuhan – the origin location of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic – locals say that the city’s 11-week coronavirus lockdown caused severe “trauma” to both the urban center’s economy and its residents’ collective psyche, contradicting Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda suggesting that the capital of Hubei province has returned to a pre-pandemic normal.
Despite recent attempts by the CCP to tout Wuhan’s supposed recovery “as proof its authoritarian coronavirus response is superior to that of Western democracies like the United States,” the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Tuesday that recent “interviews with dozens of local [Wuhan] residents show deep psychological scars and economic damage may take months, if not years, to repair.”
According to the report, “Wuhan’s gross domestic product contracted 20 percent in the first half of the year” after a CCP-imposed lockdown designed to curb the spread of coronavirus brought the capital’s economy to a grinding halt for at least 76 days at the start of 2020. CCP authorities eased lockdown restrictions in Wuhan – which included sealing residents inside their homes – starting on April 7. Now, nearly 150 days later, local hotel manager Wang Dandan told the SCMP that her business’s profits are still so low that she cannot afford to pay her rent.
“The hotel’s occupancy ratio has returned to about 90 percent of last year’s level, but the room rate has dropped by 50 percent on average to about 200 yuan ($29) per night,” Wang said.
“Profit is very thin … we are still trying to make up for losses” sustained during the lockdown, she explained. “The landlord has urged us many times to pay the rent but we can’t afford to now, we really don’t have any money.”
Wang said her financial plight serves as an example of the ongoing suffering endured by most in Wuhan.
“The trauma caused by the pandemic is so deep for all of us, it is hard for anyone to avoid,” the hotel manager said. “Everyone in Wuhan will be on a very tight budget this year because we haven’t been to work for about three months.”
Mei, the owner of a Wuhan tea house, echoed Wang’s statements. She told the SCMP that business at her cafe “was only slightly better than during the outbreak.” The small business owner, who declined to give her first name to the newspaper, said, “I might have to get [another] job. At least I would have a salary.” Although the cafe’s losses “had narrowed recently, the shop was still losing money,” she added.
Wang, the hotel manager, said that the Wuhan municipal government claimed to introduce “some preferential rent policies for businesses” in the wake of the lockdown. However, she said her hotel has struggled through red tape in the application process and has yet to receive any government relief.
“In fact, the implementation is slow, and the application procedures are very complicated,” the hotel manager explained.
The Wuhan government’s failure to support Wang’s hotel in the aftermath of the lockdown seems especially striking, given that CCP authorities forced her to convert the building into “the sleeping quarters for medical professionals deployed across the city” to treat coronavirus patients at the height of Wuhan’s outbreak in January, according to the report.
Wuhan native Wang Yan was part of the workforce that built the city’s Huoshenshan Hospital to exclusively treat coronavirus patients. The CCP claimed that the hospital was built in just eight days between January 23 and February 2.
“The hospital, which ceased operation on April 14, is often portrayed as a monument to China’s efficiency, but Wang said there was nothing to be proud of,” the SCMP noted.
“It was assembled as Wuhan’s regular hospitals were overflowing with patients, people were dying helplessly at home, and the city was gripped by anger and despair,” Wang explained. “It was built upon the fact that the whole city was collapsing,” he added.
Wang’s bitter summation of the Wuhan government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak contrasts starkly with the CCP’s most recent attempts to paint the city as a rejuvenated urban center brimming with prosperity and good health.
In mid-August, the CCP released colorful propaganda footage of a water park music festival in Wuhan, which the Communist Party claimed was attended by thousands of people in a demonstration of the city’s allegedly successful economic recovery.
On Tuesday, local CCP officials in Wuhan said that “2,842 local middle schools, primary schools, and kindergartens in Wuhan will reopen, welcoming about 1.4 million students back [to in-person learning]… Also, 83 universities in the city will resume offline classes gradually in September as the virus has been fully contained,” the CCP mouthpiece Global Times claimed.
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