THANKS, SOCCER!:

Authorities have put more than a quarter of the Chinese population under some form of lockdown as of Tuesday, according to Nomura analysts -- a contrast with the raucous World Cup crowds that have infuriated many Chinese social media users.

"Some people are watching World Cup matches in person with no masks, some have been locked at home for a month, locked on campus for two months without even being able to step out the door," a Guangdong-based user on the Twitter-like Weibo platform wrote on Wednesday.

"Who has stolen my life? I won't say."

Another Weibo user from Shaanxi province said they were "disappointed" in their country.

"The World Cup has allowed most Chinese people to see the real situation abroad, and worry about the economy of the motherland, and their own youth," the user wrote.

An open letter questioning the country's Covid-19 policies and asking if China was "on the same planet" as Qatar spread on the popular WeChat messaging app on Tuesday, before censors removed it from the platform.

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