The term 'lockdown' for COVID-19 restrictions was adopted from Communist China.
Posted by The Kuhner Report, Checked
- Sources
- 1 contradict4 support2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 60%
The Kuhner ReportOct 7, 2026
The sources show English-language media adopted 'lockdown' to describe China's January 2020 Wuhan measures, and CNN notes the word was first used for these Chinese travel restrictions (fengcheng, 'sealing the city'), so the term's Chinese origin is partly supported.
What was said
… And you know, lockdown means what you do in a prison: you lock down the prisoners. And that's the term they used, lockdown. They got that approach from China, literally from Communist China. So they turned all of us prisoners in our own country, and people lost their jobs, our civil liberties were wiped out, businesses were destroyed, schools were shuttered, closed. …
The Kuhner Report · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. CNN's account indicates the term was borrowed by English-language media from Chinese reporting of a Chinese policy, but it does not say Western governments adopted the term as a policy 'approach' from China, so the post's implied framing of a deliberate transfer of approach is not established.[3]
Supports. CNN reports that news organizations first used 'lockdown' for COVID-19 on January 23, 2020 about Chinese authorities sealing Wuhan, a policy called 'fengcheng' meaning 'sealing the city', and that English-language media 'quickly adopted' the term.[3][5]
Supports. Wikipedia and Reuters describe the January 2020 Wuhan lockdown imposed by Chinese authorities, and the Wuhan lockdown set the precedent for similar Chinese measures.[1][4][6]
Context. The Western restrictions the post refers to (prison-like lockdowns, mask mandates, social distancing) are not described in the sources as copied from China; sources only document the Chinese measures and their global spread.[2][7]
Sources
7 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 1 tier 2, 1 tier 1, 3 not rated
- 1Timeline: Wuhan, one year after coronavirus lockdownreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2Anatomy of a conspiracy: With COVID, China took leading ...apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3What were the Covid ‘lockdowns,’ really? - CNNcnn.com · tier 2 · cited for: contradicts, supports
- 4Wuhan lockdown: A year of China's fight against the Covid ...bbc.com · tier 1 · cited for: supports
- 5What were the Covid ‘lockdowns,' really?edition.cnn.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6COVID-19 lockdown in China - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 7Pride and caution in Wuhan as city passes anniversary of world-first ...sbs.com.au · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
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