Legal challenge to new curbs

Shanghai has tightened Covid curbs on its residents, raising new frustration and even questions about the legality of its uncompromising battle with the virus, with a law professor writing that the policies are illegal.

While there has been no official announcement, some residents in at least four of Shanghai's 16 districts received notices saying they were no longer able to leave their homes or receive deliveries as part of the effort to drive community infections down to zero.

Two residents in a fifth district, Yangpu, said they were notified of similar measures and that grocers in their neighborhoods would be shutting.

Images also emerged of a street fight between locals and officials in white hazmat suits in Minhang district. Officials later said "troublemakers" clashed with health staff on Saturday night, inciting neighbors to rush out of their barricaded building as other residents threw objects onto the street from their windows.

Public anger over lockdowns is being inflamed by online accounts of authorities forcing neighbors of positive cases into centralized quarantine and demanding that they hand over the keys to their homes to be disinfected, which legal experts denounced as unlawful.

Online videos include one showing police picking a lock after a resident refused to open the door. In another instance, a voice recording of a call circulated on the internet of a woman arguing with officials demanding to spray disinfectant in her home even though she had tested negative.

Professor Tong Zhiwei, who teaches law at the East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, wrote in an essay which was widely circulated that such acts were illegal and should stop.

"Shanghai should set a good example for the whole country on how to carry out Covid-prevention work in a scientific and legitimate way," Tong wrote.

Such measures should only be taken under a state of emergency, he said in the essay, for which he said more than 20 academics had provided input.

Liu Dali, a lawyer from one of China's largest law firms, wrote a similar letter to authorities.

Copies of both letters have been censored from the Chinese internet though users have reposted screenshots. Posts from Tong's social media account on Weibo site blocked as of Sunday.

China is adamant that it will stick to its zero-Covid policy to fight the disease. Authorities have warned against criticism of a policy they say is saving lives.

Shanghai yesterday reported a drop in new cases for the 10th straight day. The city has borne the brunt of the country's Omicron surge, with more than 500 deaths, official data showed.