News Analysis Since the pandemic, Chinese media often contributed its much questionable pandemic containment “success” to grid management, which was said to be an advantage of the socialist Chinese society. By March 2020, around 4.5 million grid staff served as the first line of defense since the pandemic, “like in a wartime state,” state-run media reported; they are the grassroots “intelligence, interpreters, and gatekeepers” of national policy. Take Haiyan County of the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang as an example. The local government mobilized 10,000 grid staff to guard communities by door-to-door visits, taking temperatures and ensuring residents wear masks and are updated with current policy, in an effort to serve a population of 160,000 of a local township, Wuyuan. These grid staff often introduce themselves as the “warriors” of the line of defense against the pandemic. The Peripheral or Surveillance Nerve? China adopted digital grid management in urban housing and development …