As Chinese President Xi Jinping passed an apartment complex last week during his tour of Wuhan, ground zero of the global coronavirus pandemic, he looked up and waved back at rows of residents who -- still under lockdown -- greeted him behind masks from their apartment windows.
The upbeat footage -- beamed into millions of homes across China later that evening -- was meant to send a confident message that, under Xi's leadership, the country had turned a corner.
But for many Wuhan residents, the images on state media do not match with the reality of day-to-day life.
"What's for sure is that Xi Jinping cannot hear any genuine voices at all," said resident Zhang Yi of the leader's visit, his first since the outbreak emerged in Wuhan in December.
Zhang, and many others like him, have been sealed off from the outside world since late January, when the metropolis of 11 million was placed under a state-imposed lockdown to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus -- and their frustrations have been mounting.
The upbeat footage -- beamed into millions of homes across China later that evening -- was meant to send a confident message that, under Xi's leadership, the country had turned a corner.
But for many Wuhan residents, the images on state media do not match with the reality of day-to-day life.
"What's for sure is that Xi Jinping cannot hear any genuine voices at all," said resident Zhang Yi of the leader's visit, his first since the outbreak emerged in Wuhan in December.
Zhang, and many others like him, have been sealed off from the outside world since late January, when the metropolis of 11 million was placed under a state-imposed lockdown to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus -- and their frustrations have been mounting.
