As we’ve shared over the past few days, videos and still images shot on the ground in Shanghai depict a horrifying, dystopian nightmare. And we’re only able to stand as mute witnesses to these horrors because brave citizens there — acting as de facto journalists in the city — refuse to be silent about the loss of their basic freedoms and erosion of their humanity.

RedState’s most recent coverage began over the weekend, with the now-familiar, heartbreaking clips of people wailing from their apartments/prisons in the dark of night, as they suffer through China’s new COVID quarantine of Shanghai.

My colleague Bonchie also brought readers Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s swift condemnation of the CCP’s ruthless treatment of the citizens, in what is truly a hellscape. Bonchie set up well how these disturbing images are giving the world a rare, inside look at how Xi’s violent goon squads operate:

The Chinese government is currently instituting a city-wide COVID-19 lockdown that is going further than anything we’ve seen before. People are being sealed into their homes, starving, and without any way to get food while their dogs and cats are being murdered on the streets. Shockingly, those may be the lucky ones, though. Others are being beaten and dragged off by police to “quarantine” centers.

Indeed, that’s what we appear to see in the latest videos to emerge from Shanghai, with police detaining, sometimes violently, unarmed citizens who dared to cross over a certain zone.

Independent journalist Jennifer Zeng, now based in the U.S., shared these new frightening and brutal scenes, which were captured from outside some barricades authorities had erected — meant to enforce the city-wide lockdown.

Warning: these videos are difficult to watch and contain graphic/violent images.

“The police are hitting us!” Woman in #Shanghai crying and shouting. Looks the police are arresting people who broke the #lockdown barricades. #上海 這樣的瘋狂還要持續多久？#CCPChina #CCPVirus pic.twitter.com/UnkJ6Aspav

— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) April 14, 2022

Here is the same video, but with English subtitles:

Forced eviction in #Shanghai, the #CCP needs their homes as #COVID19 #quarantine site. #CCPChina #CCPVirus
English titles added. (I tweeted this before without English subtitles)
能聽懂的地方都加了英文字幕了。這些人給弄到哪裏去了，有誰知道嗎？#上海 #中共病毒 pic.twitter.com/wRZOqaZWMb

— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@JenniferZeng15) April 15, 2022

Some intense moments when the #CCP police remove residents from their homes so that the buildings can be used as #COVID19 #Quarantine site. Apr 14, Nashi International Community, #Pudong New Area, #Shanghai. 4月14日,#上海 纳什国际社区暴行。下跪沒用，哭喊也沒用！#中共病毒 pic.twitter.com/zugISs87tG

— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) April 14, 2022

As Xeng explains in these and other tweets, the videos show police officers (in those creepy white outfits we’ve seen before) evicting residents — so that their apartment buildings can be used as “COVID-19 quarantine sites.” That is, to house anyone who tests positive for COVID in the new outbreak there.

She believes the reason the Chinese feel they can do this is these residents are tenants, not homeowners. She writes:

Here is a report in Chinese. You can run an auto-translation. These residents are tenants of this community. They don’t own the apartments. Perhaps that’s why #CCP thinks it has the right to do this. 

A commenter on the tweet linked above demanded she give “proof” that these are actual residents being beaten and detained. And her answer shares a hard fact about communist authoritarian dictatorships:

If you need “official proof”, you may be disappointed.

The excuse this police officer gives to bus-riders on why all of this is happening is — in a word — chilling.

"What is happening in #Shanghai is the result of the international situation. We are going to have a war with the #US." Can you work out the logic behind the police officer's words? I can't. 原來 #上海 的一切都是國際形勢造成的。「要跟美國打仗了！」#CCPChina #CCPvirus #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/48fG7uwSK0

— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) April 14, 2022

As Shanghai degrades into a morass of blatant human rights violations by the Chinese government, and the Christian world moves toward the most holy day of Easter on Sunday, join me in keeping the people of Shanghai (and the Uighurs) in your prayers for God’s redemption, hope, and love.