Five years after Wuhan lockdown, China still ‘struggling to recover’

Five years ago, authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and surrounding areas in Hubei province imposed a travel ban on some 18 million people, just days after admitting that the newly emerging coronavirus was transmissible between people.

The lockdown prompted a mass rush to leave the city that likely helped spread COVID-19 around the country and beyond. It also plunged China into three grueling years of citywide lockdowns, mass quarantine camps and compulsory daily COVID tests, with residents locked in, walled off and even welded into their own apartments, unable to earn a living or seek urgent medical care.

China is still struggling to recover today, despite the ending of restrictions in 2022 following nationwide protests, political commentators and a city resident told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.

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