Shanghai a ghost city a figment of imagination

Sitting in an office in downtown Shanghai and writing a rebuttal of the rumors that China's largest city has turned into a ghost town seems like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Rebutting such absurd claims is simple: open the window, use your mobile phone camera to click a few random photographs, upload them on social media platforms, and your job is done.

In fact, many have done a better job by clicking photos and videos of Shanghai's immensely busy streets to rebut "independent journalist" Michael Yon's tweet on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. Yon's tweet features three photos, which appear to show desolate roads and an empty Starbucks outlet in Shanghai's Lujiazui financial area, one of the city's most prosperous areas. Yon said the photos were taken by a friend on Monday and indicate "deep trouble" for the Chinese economy.

Yon doesn't live in Shanghai or know the city well enough to have the knowledge of how a specific location looks like at a specific time of the day or night. Only office employees working in the area, some of whom can be seen in the photos, know it's not a good idea to take the overpass on a sunny, smothering hot morning on Monday to see or show what the city actually looks like.