We Followed the Directives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

A transit officer, wearing protective gear, controls access to a tunnel in the direction of Shanghai's Pudong district in lockdown on March 28, 2022.Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary 

The horrific scenes in Shanghai in the last few weeks, as residents face starvation because of the way China’s Zero-COVID policy is being enforced, reminded me of my first trip to China over forty years ago, when I ran a conference between Australian and Chinese journalists in November 1981.