Despite the fact that Covid-19 exists in the world because of the Chinese government, ever since that government released its plague upon the world, it has had a certain dubious esteem from many corners. Whether out of a credulous acceptance of the efficacy of the CCP’s totalitarian methods to suppress the domestic spread of the virus it created, or out of an excessive disdain for the supposedly ineffectual U.S. response to Covid, such voices have put themselves in a position of grudging (or not-so-grudging) admiration of the CCP’s methods.
The Chinese government has claimed for many months essentially to have wiped out Covid, a claim which should be taken with not a grain but at least a mine of salt. But in certain parts of the country, the spread of Covid (unmitigated by China’s inferior vaccines) has now outstripped the ability of the government to cover it up. As a result, it is resorting to the same March 2020 playbook it helped export around the world: i.e., totalitarian lockdowns. Much of life in Shanghai, a city of 26 million people, has been shut down, with residents barely able to leave their homes, frequent testing mandatory, and those found positive forced into Covid-quarantine facilities.
None of this is surprising for China. And we now know well the human cost of such measures. But a recent news story involving something not even human reinforces how truly barbaric these practices are. According to the South China Morning Post, a family whose members had tested positive for Covid in Shanghai was forced to leave a pet corgi behind as they were forcibly transferred to a Covid-quarantine facility. Unsure whether to leave the pet inside to starve or to let it out and hope it would survive on its own, the family chose the latter course. Heartbreakingly, the corgi ran after its owners as they were taken away. And then someone tasked with lockdown enforcement beat it to death:
The family was torn between letting the dog go outside in the hopes that it would survive or keeping it inside where it could starve if the family was stuck out of the home for too long.
The family decided to let the dog outside before they were quarantined. The video, which has gone viral in China, showed the corgi chasing the van for a short distance as it left.
Once the van had driven away, the worker, identified as a gate guard for the complex, hit the dog three times with a spade, killing it.
The dog’s pained cries could be heard in the video, taken by a resident from her high-rise residential building, who yelled, “it is too cruel”.
There has been an outcry over this in China. Here’s the response of the government, which initially claimed to have killed the dog out of concern it could further spread the virus:
“We did not fully consider the issue, and we have told the dog’s owner that we will discuss compensation with him later,” the official, whose name was not released, was quoted as saying.
Human life is obviously more important than animal life. But in this case, the uncivilized and brutal methods of the Chinese government presented a false choice. It is but a small example of that regime’s cruelty — something worth keeping in mind as its misguided admirers persist in their affection or obfuscation.