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"Parade of Shame": China publicly humiliates corona rule breakers
The public demonstration of criminals has actually been officially abolished in China for several years.
As the pandemic progresses, the cruel practice could become common again, as a recent eyewitness video shows.
Amateur footage from the city of Jingxi in southern China: The videos show a procession through the city - led by the police. Four people are escorted in white epidemic protective suits. They are masked - but each carry a poster with a photo of their face and their name. According to the state media, the people who are being shown here in a cruel way have violated the Corona border requirements by smuggling migrants into the country from nearby Vietnam.
The scenes are reminiscent of the public humiliations from the time of the Cultural Revolution under Mao Tse-tung. In 2010 the government banned the exposure of criminals. For a few months now, local authorities have been partially resuming the practice as part of the strict corona measures. In the online networks and some media, the pillory in Jingxi met with criticism, but in some cases also with understanding and approval.
China is pursuing a zero Covid strategy with its corona policy.
152 new infections were reported across China on Wednesday - 151 of them in the metropolis of Xi'an.
For seven days, the authorities in Xi'an have therefore imposed a lockdown on 13 million people.
It is the largest since the Wuhan lockdown in 2020. Travel from city to city is generally prohibited.
People are only allowed to leave their homes to get a PCR test.
Food should be delivered to the apartments - until an entire community has tested negative.
Cases with the new, even more contagious Omicron variant have not yet been reported in China.
