Shanghai COVID Kidnapping

April 11, 2022

1. Children separated from Parents

Local authorities’ initial plans to contain the COVID lockdown with measures to keep
sections of Shanghai’s bustling city up and running seem to have been curtailed due to their
inability to contain the pathogen. As the 4th wave strikes hard, fueled by the variant Omicron,
authorities are struggling to find bed availability to treat the desperately ill, including
non-COVID maladies. Locals are complaining that authorities have now even resorted to
separating sick children from their parents in the name of protectionism. Basically, the
draconian rules are that anyone, including children and babies who are found positive, even if
asymptomatic or with a mild infection, must be isolated from non-infected people.
Parents who have visited clinics with their children for treatment have seen them taken by
authorities and moved to official quarantine facilities. Even when both parent and child have
tested positive, threats have been issued to subdue families into compliance. Sadly, in some
cases, even children as young as 3 months old have reportedly been separated from their
breast-feeding mothers. In another case, more than 20 children from a Shanghai
kindergarten aged 5 to 6 were sent to a quarantine centre without their parents consent and
due consideration.

2. Case of Esther Zhao and her toddler

Esther Zhao was separated from her 2 and 1/2-year-old daughter in Shanghai, after the girl
came down with a fever. Esther thought she had done the best thing by bringing her to a
medical facility with a fever on March 26, 2022. However, only 3 days later, Zhao was
literally begging authorities not to separate them after they had both tested positive for
Covid. She was appealing against the decision to remove her child. Obviously, she felt her
daughter was too vulnerable and still needed her mother’s constant attention. Doctors
warned they would enforce their plans if she did not agree to transfer the girl. Once
separated, despite pleading with doctors, parents are often left in the dark and provided with
few updates on their child’s status. Since the separation Esther has only been sent a
message via a group chat with doctors.
“There have been no photos at all…I’m so anxious, I have no idea what situation my
daughter is in,” she muttered through tears. The doctor said children must now be sent to
designated points and parents are not allowed to accompany their children.

3. Viral videos of child neglect and despair

Making matters worse, images of crying, desperate children who had been separated from
their parents went viral on Chinese social media, filling Esther with dread. The images
depicted wailing babies, crowded three to a cot. In one video, a clearly distressed toddler
crawled out of a room with four child-sized beds pushed to one side of the wall. There
seemed to be little or no supervision at all. Sources familiar with the facility confirmed their
authenticity, and also verified it is situated in the Jinshan District of Shanghai. Since then,
most posts had been deleted by the authorities, however many citizens have already seen
the media and have lodged their complaints with the authorities.
The separation policy is the latest scandal to cause outrage across Shanghai. It comes on
the back of another in which they have lied about the deaths in the city’s nursing homes. It seems again authorities are taking the virus as a means to install Dickensian laws and
denying parents the basic rights of care and protection of their babies and children.