What Xi'an's chaotic lockdown reveals about China's uncompromising top-down bureaucracy

As harrowing stories continue to emerge from within the locked-down city of Xi'an, a wave of disbelief has washed over the Chinese public: why are such tragedies still unfolding two years into the pandemic, in a major metropolis of 13 million people?

Xi'an was placed under strict lockdown orders on December 23 in a drastic bid to contain the spread of a fast-growing Covid cluster. But in the days and weeks since, a steady stream of complaints about food shortages, as well as heartbreaking scenes of critical patients -- including heavily pregnant women -- being denied medical care have shocked the nation.