The traveller's heart was in his mouth. After three weeks in quarantine in locked-down ShanghaiChina's leading financial centre. Ironically, its citizens have been reduced to bartering for food., he finally held a train ticket to his home city, BeijingChina's capital. . He had passed the PCR tests and had a valid travel pass. But when officials scanned his phone, it told them that he might have been exposed to Covid-19. He was turned away from the station. 

The traveller, who told his story anonymously to Coda, had nowhere to go. He had no friends in Shanghai, and no buses or taxis were operating. Officially, he was not even allowed to be on the street.

He resorted to walking through the deserted city, knocking on the doors of hotels. Finally, he found an internet cafe whose manager agreed to take him in. But there was nothing to eat. Only by luck was he able to buy four bags of instant noodles and six pieces of cake from a small shop - food which had to last him several days.

He knew he had to get out of Shanghai if he was to survive. Finally, he managed to book a flight to a city in southern China. But how was he to get to the airport? There were iron gates between each district of the city, and only pandemic workers were allowed to drive between them - without any passengers.

He was saved by his boss, who arranged for a delivery driver to take him, hidden under a pile of cardboard boxes. At the airport, he had to scramble over a fence to get in. Even after boarding, "I was terrified the plane would just never take off. The minutes ticked by... At last, ever so slowly, the plane began to move. When we took off, it was as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I was free."

This is just one of many nightmarish stories about life in Shanghai. Residents refer to the "White Terror" because of the people in white hazmatShort for "hazardous materials". Hazmat suits are designed to protect wearers from disease and other dangers.  suits ruthlessly enforcing China's "zero-CovidThe idea of managing Covid-19 by eliminating it entirely from a population. " policy. Some compare it to the Cultural Revolution.

One commentator has called the city "the largest prison camp in human history." Buildings where Covid-19 cases have been found have their entrances sealed so that only health workers can come and go.

People testing positive have to go to quarantine centres which are often short of food, water and bedding. Yet while some 400,000 cases have been reported, only a very small proportionAround one in 800. Many of the victims have been unvaccinated. have resulted in death.

"Residents go days without food and weeks without medicine," reports Gordon G Chang in The Hill: "pets are butchered, people jump to their deaths and residents break quarantine by flooding the streets in protest. There are clashes with police. Frustrated residents howl from windows and balconies while police drones hover nearby demanding silence. Robot dogs patrol neighbourhoods."

Other parts of China are suffering too. An estimated 26% of the population - 373 million people -- are experiencing partial or total lockdowns, in 45 cities.

"No one cares about us," wrote one young mother on social mediaSocial media is defined by websites, apps and social games that connect people to each other through the sharing of pictures, thoughts, ideas, articles, and other content.  after her baby fell ill. "No one is treating us, and there's no supplies. Save my child."

Yes: This widespread suffering is obviously due to mistakes made by the ruling Communist Party. People without enough to eat will always fight to survive, and there are a huge number of them.

No:  The Chinese government has an iron grip on the country, with everyone under surveillance. Military doctors have been sent to Shanghai - a warning that soldiers could easily follow.

Or: The government may survive, but President Xi might not. In the autumn the Communist Party will vote on whether he should continue as leader: if anything can make it reject him, this crisis will.