My parcel tracking advised it had left Foshan for the Guangzhou sorting centre on the 16th of June. I got a notification from Royal Mail that it was now leaving the country of origin, however it didn't leave China at all. It got sent back to the Guangzhou sorting centre for some reason (tracking says "security return", no further information). It sat in Guangzhou for the next 10 days before I got a second notification that it was now leaving China. It didn't leave China at all - it was then sent 1,500km across the country to Zengzhou, which seems inexplicable.
I got another notification saying it had left China on the 28th of June. Finally, I thought, it's on its way. No, actually it's not, according to China Post. Tracking tells me it's been handed over to the airline 3 or 4 different times. What's happening? Is this craziness all because of Covid19?

OK, that explains things. Thank you.