Scam Horror! ‘iPhone City' in China May Be Abusing Covid Controls
A manufacturing hub in central China is allegedly abusing its Covid control measures to prevent investors who say they have been swindled out of billions of dollars in a suspected financial scam from returning to the city to protest.
Several people who claim to have been denied access to their money invested via online platforms said their health codes turned red when they scanned in at the main train station of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, meaning they could no longer move about freely. They had carried green health codes when they left their hometowns, said the people, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals.
Such alleged use of health-code apps to track people beyond their intended purpose has caused a firestorm, adding to concerns that the strict Covid restrictions imposed in mainland China and Hong Kong are doubling as a form of social control. In Hong Kong, groups of more than four are still banned from gathering outdoors -- though restaurants allow bigger groups at the same table -- and the rule is widely seen as a way of preventing political protests.
A former editor of the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper said such health code manipulation jeopardizes the public’s support, while the Caixin news outlet warned in an editorial that any abuse of the system could pose a potential threat to society. A human rights lawyer accused the authorities of meddling with his health code to bar him from traveling, the New York Times reported earlier this year.
Phone calls to the Zhengzhou city government and the local health authority went unanswered. An employee handling city government hotline inquiries told local media that there was some error with their so-called Big Data information
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