In the early months of the pandemic, the Chinese government created a color-coded smartphone app to track people’s movements in order to control COVID-19 spread and implement its zero-COVID policy. However, media reports this week said that officials in Zhengzhou, Henan province’s capital, were now utilising the needed codes to limit the movement of persons whose deposits had been frozen by local banks. Hundreds of depositors who had been unable to access their accounts planned to fly to Zhengzhou on Monday, only to discover that their health codes had suddenly turned red. As a result, they were unable to go,...