Xi Jinping has a problem. Facing a surge in COVID cases across China, the general secretary’s Communist Party subordinates have unleashed a new wave of harsh lockdowns.

The most recent victim of China’s fanatical zero-case COVID approach is Shanghai. With 25 million citizens, Shanghai is both China’s top financial and export hub and its most populous city. But the lockdown isn’t proceeding smoothly. Although domestic censors are working overtime to remove negative reports, videos posted to other social media outlets show great human suffering. Citizens are complaining of inadequate food, medical, and other supplies. Hospitals appear to be overwhelmed. Patients are being forcibly separated from their families or even left to die. Servants of blind obedience rather than moral nuance, Communist officials are requiring even the asymptomatic to abandon their jobs and families if they test positive.