"The local residents have been supporting our pandemic control measures with high discipline, and we share their feelings," Zong Ming, Vice-mayor of Shanghai, said at a news conference on Friday with tears. "But there is much that we haven't done and we failed people's expectations. We must correct that with full efforts."

For the past several weeks, Shanghai has been experiencing perhaps the gravest new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in China since it was largely put under control in early 2020. Its total infection cases have already exceeded 150,000, with new infections still rising by 1,006 and new asymptomatic infections rising by 23,937 on Saturday.

In all aspects, just like Zong said, Shanghai needs to do more to protect its people from the pandemic by better addressing their concerns, including shortage of daily necessities and bad coordination in ensuring supplies.

However, that has nothing to do with what a New York Times commentary claims that the situation in Shanghai poses a political test to the "dynamic zero" policy.

By politicizing the public health incident with their long-held ideological bias, they have turned a blind eye to the fact that, by adhering to "dynamic zero" policy, the county is just trying to help its people avoid the disastrous situation that US people are facing.

On the very day that The New York Times published the commentary, the US saw 94,781 new infections and 565 deaths, bringing its total infections to 80.38 million and deaths to 985,067. Considering the gaps in medical facilities between the two countries, China cannot endure such a disastrous result.

The 80.38 million infections and 985,067 deaths are not cold numbers; Behind each of the digits is the loss of a life and tragedy for a family. Yet the US spends 15 percent of its annual medical expenses on the medical insurances for the rich, leaving the poor uncared for.

The New York Times blamed Shanghai for lockdown measures. The fact is that the poor people in the US are free to choose, but with only one choice, namely being infected and suffering. That's not what a responsible government should do; That's not what a time-honored newspaper should boast of.

The domestic pandemic control measures are far from perfect. The local government of Shanghai is open to advice on improvement; On Friday three local officials received penalties for failures in the pandemic control work.

But that should never be taken by some China-bashers as an excuse to politicize the event and blame China. The New York Times could save some energy, write stories and comment on the pandemic situation in its own country, which has been bad for years.

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