Jakarta –
In a video that was spread on Chinese social media, Weibo saw Chinese citizens being hit panic buying. They wholesale groceries for daily needs.
It even invited a queue to leave at a supermarket in Changzhou, China. The shopping carts of residents were also known to be full and the shelves in the shops were empty.
Quoted from CNN, Monday (11/8/2021) the panic was prompted by an announcement from the Ministry of Commerce urging its citizens to ‘stock up’ food needs. The government in its announcement encourages families to meet their daily needs.
Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Willy Lam, revealed that there were several things that prompted the government to call for this. For one, this year’s energy crisis forced factories to suspend some production and triggered home power outages.
“It also reflects people’s anxiety about further drastic increases in [biaya] food and also distrust of the government,” Lam added.
Lam also said that because the government is also suppressing COVID-19 cases, it is likely that there will be a long enough lockdown to keep COVID-19 cases low.
“This is in preparation for the lockdown conditions that will continue, although in general the number for China is actually very low compared to other countries,” he said.
Seeing the panic of Chinese citizens, the Chinese government and some state media have tried to allay concerns about food shortages. An official at the Ministry of Commerce, Zhu Xiaoliang, made sure there was sufficient stock of groceries.
The Jiangsu Department of Emergency Management, said any recommendation for stockpiling is normal and is meant to prevent any unwanted things going forward. In addition, countries around the world are reopening and learning to live with COVID-19, is also predicted to be one factor.
(dna / dna)
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