Beijing goes quiet

Millions of people in Beijing stayed home yesterday as China's capital tries to fend off a Covid-19 outbreak with creeping restrictions on movement.

Beijing residents fear they may soon find themselves in the grip of the same draconian measures that have trapped most of Shanghai's 25 million people at home for weeks.

Officials there have said the eastern powerhouse is winning its battle against the country's worst outbreak since the pandemic began.

Yet the Shanghai lockdown has intensified, causing outrage and rare protest in the last major economy still glued to a zero-Covid policy.

That policy has winded an economy which just months ago had been bouncing back from the pandemic. Customs data released yesterday said exports in April slumped to their lowest monthly rate since June 2020, as key supply chains became knotted by restrictions.