1. The Shanghai lockdown keeps the idea of virus containment alive.
2. The Shanghai lockdown reassures western trading partners that China is as dumb as they are.
3. The Shanghai lockdown is useful political theatre to the CCP, further binding China’s population to the Party.

A hardline communist like Xi Jinping, who spent time in a forced labor camp as a youth, isn’t about to lose sleep over some bankers in Shanghai missing a few meals. On the contrary, China’s top leaders are more inclined to see the lockdown as character building; a lesson to the rich kids that sacrifice to the Party comes first, and a reminder to the people all across China that they really are all in this together.