In addition to your wise comments, the communists have a serious propaganda problem, because if Xi wears protective masks, they are saying, yes, he is also vulnerable, he is not God, and if he doesn't, then t the people would say: What? Is he stupid? And if he does not appear on any media or ceremony, then the people would say: Is he sick? For a dictator this kind of situation is misery.
13
I am surprised and disappointed to see Mr. Kristoff capitalizing on the coronavirus to make a factually false and logically unsound claim about the Chinese government. Not everything in China has to do with Xi Jinping!
The Wuhan government did not make perfect decisions, but in rapidly identifying the virus as completely new, reporting it to the WHO, promptly shutting down the seafood market, closing the city right before China's largest holiday, and rapidly constructing two emergency hospitals, it has consistently shown the efficiency and evidence-based decision-making that few governments process. I challenge Mr. Kristoff to name one government that would perform better.
I read Chinese social media myself. And in spite of the NYTimes cherry-picked quotes about anger towards the government, I see overwhelming support towards the front-line medical workers, scientists and construction workers building the new hospitals. For every tweet against the government, there are a hundred more encouraging Wuhan, soliciting donations, and expressing hope.
50
@Jasoni I read a lot of Chinese social media as well. But I see anger from the populace and breakdown of morality in certain population by persecuting people from Wuhan, e.g. locking up their houses against the owner's will.
18
Nicholas Kristof, bravo sir. This piece of journalism provides a welcome reminder that democracy still — with all of its faults — will always win out over a dictatorship. Thank you for the well-researched honesty. I took a big deep dive into the situation with the Uighur minority in Xingjiang as well, thanks to this piece.
69
I think of Kristoff as The Times' columnist who's the heart of compassion and the activist of empathy. His conviction is palpable: that the Human Condition isn't inevitable and if we see clearly and care we can change things and ease suffering everywhere.
That's why this column disappoints me. Kristoff knows China. Instead of his insight into China's unique and unprecedented circumstance -- a population larger than all of Africa combined, with a modern history of political, social and economic development that's a fraction as long as America, facing headwinds of Western hostility, colonial oppression and cultural isolation laden with millennia of feudalism and dynastic rule -- Kristoff retreats to a stiff ideological view that isn't helpful, not in the face of a health emergency.
There is no precedent for China nor an ideal form of governance that's commensurate with the gargantuan challenges facing 1.2 to 1.6 billion Chinese. The last time any Western nation attempted such a massive undertaking was British imperial rule of India, which ended in hasty retreat that left a lingering legacy of dysfunction, division and destitution.
Arguably the only "democratically elected" leader more dangerous and devious than Trump is Modi.
Others have noted America's glaring public health crises -- opioids, AIDs, measles, obesity, gun violence, racism, tobacco, homelessness, military spending and war.
We are a shining glass house on a hill. We can do better than throw stones.
84
@Yuri Asian The claim that China cannot be a democracy because its massive population can only be ruled effectively by authoritarian leaders is entirely unproven and - I suspect - merely a convenient narrative legitimising a dictatorship.
26
Stuff happens: No matter which political road you choose, especially in a huge country, mistakes will be legion and egregious. National embarrassments for England, Russia, Brazil, and America are countless.
Yes, China dropped the ball, hoist on its own petard.
But such mistakes are tragically unavoidable: The map you're using, whatever it is, will ineluctably take you into some rough patches. Now if we could only get our hands on a perfect map, say, Plato's Republic, but, no, that won't work either, which Socrates admits at the end of the thought experiment. Human governments are forever saddled with human fallibility. All we can do is remediation when the dam breaks, and it will.
Our problems are serious; our solutions, mediocre.
2
Taiwan should be a permitted member of all international health organizations.
Why is it not? Xi and the Chinese "Communist" Party.
10
"But we’re now seeing the dangers of Xi’s authoritarian model, for China and the world."
Perhaps you and your fellow journalists are just now seeing the dangers, but the rest of the world, especially China's neighbors, saw those dangers a long way off. You all chose to ignore the ham-handed threats to Taiwan, the hauntingly familiar herding of Uighurs into concentration camps, the gruesome euthanizing and butchering of the involuntary Falun Gong organ donors, the aggressive and unapologetic spying, thievery, and bribery, and the militarism. Rather than call it out, you all often embraced the Chinese Communist Party's explanations for their actions and you faulted our own leaders, our government, our workers, and what you regularly characterized as our own narrow-mindedness.
Only you could be surprised at China's inept mishandling of this outbreak.
7
"Preening dictator" Perfect description.
7
Dear Nick, so, what else is new? Although you make an important point, it is an old story. The first nation that came roaring out of the great depression was Nazi Germany. Dictatorships are often very efficient; it is their goals which are undesirable.
1
Please send this article to Mike Bloomberg. I don't think he'll get the Dem nomination, but then, I didn't think 63 million people were stupid enough to vote for Trump (and to still support him), and I want him to be aware of the despot running China.
4
Yeah, right! The US did such a great job of controlling AIDS back in the 80's.
2
Brilliant article in exposing the downsides of dictatorship, all dictatorships ( and they all claim to be benign in the beginning ). Also, very timely because between 40% and 45 % of the American people seem to be enamored of the idea of a Trumpian dictatorship in this country. We are in extreme danger. Adolf Hitler did not have, and unfortunately did not need, the support of a majority of Germans in 1933.
4
I think the U.S. media is overreacting of this virus. When the U.S. had the Measles outbreak last year you didn't see the whole world targetting the U.S. What you saw was people within the U.S. targetting a small group of people: Ultra-Orthodox/Hasidics who were anti-vaxxers. Instead with this virus people are targetting all Chinese all over the world.. I think China is trying to control the situation, but the media shouldn't be targetting a whole country like they are.
2
One reason for the info crackdown could be the ORIGIN of 2019-nCoV.
Conspiracy theories about "bioweapons" and "synthetic viruses" are red herrings that have no bearing on whether or not this was a laboratory accident. However, there are 4 established facts worth considering:
1. The most rigorous study so far (published in The Lancet medical journal) shows the FIRST KNOWN CASE of 2019-nCoV was NOT exposed to the Huanan Market.
2. The fact that China's only bsl-4 lab happens to be in the virus epicentre could be a coincidence, but...
3. The fact that the Wuhan institute of Virology was researching Novel Bat Coronavirus is a 'coincidence' that stretches credibility.
4. In 2017, international scientists expressed concern about the Wuhan lab and China's lack of expertise/transparency in handling deadly pathogens.
Bibliography:
2018 paper from Wuhan Institute of Virology on Bat Coronaviruses:
https://jvi.asm.org/content/92/13/e00116-18
2018 article from 'The Scientist' summarising the lab's findings:
https://www.the-scientist.com/the-nutshell/bats-identified-as-source-of-pig-killing-coronavirus-in-china-30035
2017 'Nature' article mentioning safety concerns re. the lab: https://www.nature.com/news/inside-the-chinese-lab-poised-to-study-world-s-most-dangerous-pathogens-1.21487
Vox's layman summary of the research published in Lancet: https://www.vox.com/2020/1/27/21082354/coronavirus-outbreak-wuhan-china-early-on-lancet
8
And the parallels to our own nation under Donald Trump are obvious and chilling. Everything that occurs, and every opinion expressed by anyone is judged by one criterion: does it help Donald Trump? This is what being a textbook sociopath is all about. The terrifying part is that this pathetic shell of a man: refractory liar, racist, serial sex offender, demagogue, aspiring autocrat, should now command not only a large mindless cult but one of our major Parties.
We have one chance to repudiate Trump and Trumpism in November. God help us and our children if we fail.
7
We’re packed on this planet like rats and with basically no leadership to speak of, or leadership that denies an epidemic for seven weeks. Donald will fix it.
1
karma?
2
Perhaps Xi, Putin, Netanyahu, and Trump could form a rock band called "The Preening Dictators."
4
The Party handled the AIDS and Birdflu epidemics in the same manner...”not happening here”.
1
Complete bull - and an obnoxious cheap-shot.
What China needs to do is clamp down already illegal sale of protected animals.
Anyone familiar with China will tell you the biggest problem is lax enforcement of laws and regulations - not dictatorship!
Given the outbreak started the Chinese reaction is comprehensive and rapid.
SARS killed twice as many outside China than in China.
Wouldn't bet against that outcome being repeated with this virus.
1
Bravo!
Alarmists over a virus. Latest report is 132 dead in China. And a fraction of that in the United States.
Quit with the sensationalism over public health. This is click bait.
10
Logic is flawed.
3
We don't like Xi or Communist China, but now is not the time to start hitting a country in a public health crisis.
You're like Putin attacking our elections 'cause he doesn't like our system.
1
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
Mr. Kristof, I am normally a huge fan of your columns, but I think we should hold a mirror up to ourselves first and how we've handled past infectious outbreaks before pointing the finger at the Chinese. Our glass house is a big one and getting bigger by the day.
17
Lack of transparency and secrecy is not limited to China.
Just to cite one example re the US with no connection to the political system of the country involved, i.e. dictatorship or republic:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/health/candida-auris-hospitals-drug-resistant.html
"But when similar outbreaks take place at hospitals on American soil, the C.D.C. makes no such public announcement. That is because under its agreement with states, the C.D.C. is barred from publicly identifying hospitals that are battling to contain the spread of dangerous pathogens."
5
Lets get real we are 4 years or less from essentially the same government as China under Xi with Trump and Republicans in charge. You think the party of no witnesses is that far from “no bad news Doctor” you need some re-education.
5
This really isn't about health care but rather a dictatorship. A government or business run like this can not prosper forever because one person just isn't that smart nor can they keep up with our fast paced/ever changing world. This also includes our dear leader, trumpster. These people surround themselves with yes people. I am sure Xi only watches the Chins version of Fox!
3
Keep calm, wash hands and carry on.
Without much fuss in the press we had 20,000 influenza fatalities in 2003 in Germany alone adaccording to 'Arbeitsgemeinschaft Influenza' in Marburg (https://www.abendblatt.de/vermischtes/article106704653/20-000-Grippetote-in-Deutschland.html)
In winter 2017/18 'Robert Koch Institut' counted 22.900 German influenza fatalities (https://www.aerztezeitung.de/Medizin/Ungewoehnlich-schwere-Grippewelle-201718-229761.html).
Now compare the approx. 80 million Germans to the approx. 1.4 billion Chinese and you can estimate yourself the severity of the present hype.
My doctor told me most don't die of influenza but in reality they die of pneumonia in the aftermath. There's a vaccine against pneumonia and I got a shot.
Chinese citizens will always pay the price because they are seen as disposable by the government. A lot of Chinese themselves have the mentality that as long as it doesn't happen to them, then they don't care about the issue. And if a few hundred people die, so what? There's close to 2 billion of them. Yes, Xi is a big problem but it's not helped by the fact that so many Chinese citizens are so willing to believe whatever they're told by the central government. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Yet so many Chinese citizens continue to trust what the central government says. Until Chinese citizens start standing up for themselves, this will continue to happen.
5
I wonder if any of you apologists for Xi Jinping have ever lived in China. For two years, I lived in Jiaozuo, Henan, China teaching English. I got in trouble for complaining about being surveilled and so they followed me more intensely and made sure I was aware of it. They repeated my e-mail conversations back to me and imitated my physical mannerisms. Etc. You try that on for comfort when you compare the US to them. A totalitarian communist state is no joking matter. As for the premise that Xi gets bad information. He wanted to become a member of the Communist Party so bad that he applied 8 times. He wants what he's getting in some respects. And empirically, this has happened before. Mao starved at least 30 million people to death during the Great Leap Forward. He confiscated nearly all the grain produced by his agricultural commune system, including seed for the next crop, because cadres kept overestimating the size of the crop to please him. But he knew the consequences and refused to return surplus grain because he wanted to trade or sell it overseas for military and industrial equipment. He knew this was happening. You people who think this is a respectable political party are fools or willful propagandists for communism. In the 21st century, who in their right mind stands up for this system anymore? Look at what Maduro is doing in Venezuela.
6
"I don’t know if Xi is in political trouble for his misrule, but he should be. He’s a preening dictator, and with this outbreak some citizens are paying a price."
Trump is worse! The only thing saving us from disaster is the democratic congress.
At least Xi has a scientific mind and recognizes the ultimate existential problem facing all of us - Man made carbon!
1
The following is from today's South China Morning Post. It should be noted that no panic resulted when the outbreak was reported. Disorganization maybe but not panic.
Responding to criticism that authorities in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak in central China, were slow to inform the public about the illness, Zeng Guang, from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said government officials always had to factor in political stability.
“They need to consider economic factors, and issues like family reunions over the Lunar New Year. So what we [scientists] said was only part of their considerations,” tabloid Global Times quoted Zeng as saying on Wednesday.
Critics and internet users in China have said that the Wuhan government was too slow to respond, focusing on the illness as “preventable and controllable” until it became too widespread.
Zeng stressed that he was not criticising the municipal government, but said lessons should be learned and science should carry more weight in such decisions.
“If a scientific perspective is not given sufficient weight, other considerations will be meaningless,” he said.
Wuhan mayor Zhou Xianwang told state television on Monday that he waited for approval from more senior officials to release updates.
To be continued.
1
Sometimes expert opinion is more reliable than amateur speculation. The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that China deserves the international community's gratitude and respect for having taken very serious measures to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak and prevent exporting cases overseas.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the Chinese government for the extraordinary steps it has taken to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Tedros reiterated that almost 99 percent of cases and all deaths have been within China, with only 68 confirmed cases and no deaths in 15 countries and regions outside China. "For that, China deserves our gratitude and respect ... China is implementing very serious measures and we cannot ask for more," he said.
The WHO chief returned to Geneva on Wednesday from China and thanked China for having identified the pathogen in a short time and shared it immediately, which has led to the rapid development of diagnostic tools.
"China has been completely committed to transparency, both internally and externally, and has agreed to work with other countries that need support.
"The level of commitment (of the leadership) in China is incredible; I will praise China again and again, because its actions actually helped in reducing the spread of the novel coronavirus to other countries ... we shall tell the truth and that's the truth," he concluded.
Dear Mr. Kristof:
I generally find your articles informative but I don’t agree with your assessment of the situation in China nor your criticisms of President Xi. I’m not his fan but it’s getting so tiring to read the endless NYT articles bashing China and its reactions to this virus. For example, you stated in a response to another comment that 5 million had fled Wuhan. You do realize those people were part of the annual mass migration for the Chinese New Year holiday. To state that they fled implied public panic. And didn’t another NYT article state those who punished the whistleblowers were reprimanded by the Chinese court? Please don’t be a part of the problem with providing misinformation. It doesn’t help. You’ve left China so long ago that I don’t think you have its heartbeat. I’m sorry to be so blunt since I generally like your writing on a variety of topics.
2
Continued from an earlier 2 posts. What sort of political system is that calls a doctor on the hot seat for talking publicly about a potential epidemic disease, esp. when it was one that had broken out in 2002? Chernobyl. That comes to mind. This is a government that claims to be achieving utopian universal equality, but has to shut down its people because they don't believe that it will happen. Thirty million dead in a famine. Remember that.
“It might have been a fortunate thing if the public had believed the ‘rumour’ then and started to wear masks and carry out sanitisation measures, and avoid the wild animal market,” the judge said, referring to a market believed by some scientists to be the source of the outbreak in Wuhan.
Zeng also said he supported Wuhan’s decision to lock down the city, adding that it was an effective way to stop further transmission of the virus.
“We shall be able to see a turning point around ... [February 8],” he said. “If that turning point appears, we will have to thank the people of Wuhan.”
Zhou said that despite the public outcry about the lockdown he stood by the decision and was prepared to pay a professional price for it.
“Shutting down the gates might help stop the disease [from spreading] but we will all be judged by history,” he told state run CCTV on Tuesday.
“As long as we can bring the disease under control, we are willing to be fired if the people are not happy.”
1
I'd like to take this time to remind everyone that Michael Bloomberg believes Xi is not a dictator. I have little doubt that Bloomberg would be happy with America being run like China as long as he was sitting at the top of it.
1
A must read for anyone concerned about what is happening.
Just compare China's response to this coronavirus crisis to Donald Trump's response when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. Does a democracy really respond better than Xi's China? Not based on our history...
3
'And act decisively they did — not against the virus, but against whistle-blowers who were trying to call attention to the public health threat.'
I beg to differ. Cordoning off such a large population and taking decisive measures to limit the mingling of people, building hospitals in a matter of days, and apparently trying to contain the virus as best as they can is certainly not an indecisive action. All written for Xi holds but they are trying hard.
This is a cautionary tale for our own country. When Nicholas Kristof points out that leaders who surround themselves with yes men and flatterers aren't in touch with what's really happening, he whows what that leads to: chaos and an inability to stop a growing crisis.
The role for good journalism and agents of accountability has never been higher in an era where these items are becoming ever-scarcer.
I dread contemplating what we'll face here if disaster decides to hit, given an eerie similarity between the disdain for journalism and science shown by President Xi and that of our own president.
80
@ChristineMcM
Another false equivalency. You may dislike Trump (I do) but he is not, despite all of his bluster, an actual authoritarian leader or dictator. We do have a free press here. We do not limit free speech. We do not muzzle doctors or withhold medical supplies to hospitals. We do not tell people here what to think, what they can say and who they can say it to.
There is a meaningful difference between having a disdain for journalism and science and acting as the figurehead of a single party that controls everything, including the suppression of independent journalism and science.
5
Mr. Kristof,
It's always easier to say what should've been done retrospectively, than what to do when you are actually at that point making decisions.
I'm all for free speech and the free flow of information. But sometimes this type of "freeness" has its shortcomings - it also allows the free flow of MIS-information. We have certainly experienced this during the 2016 election, where misinformation was spread perhaps faster than the virus today, and worse, with no gatekeeping insight (some would call it, censorship), which was exploited by the Russians.
I'm no fan of an autocratic government, nor that I think punishing news breakers is right. What I can only guess is - when no one understood what this new virus really was at the moment, what one can do is to stop the news becoming a rumor unless we know the magnitude and the impact for sure. Otherwise, causing panic in the public without solid confidence would only make things worse.
We did see the Chinese government share the genetic profile of the coronavirus, the daily countdown of infection, etc., after they understood the problem better. They shouldn't be praised for doing what they are supposed to do, but it's certainly missing in this article.
On the contrary to our media, the news organizations here compete to be the FIRST to break the news. Therefore, I think your article is one-sided and partial, as if the outbreak happens in a free country, the situation would be much better. Would it though?
119
@JD Fair question, and, yes, I think the response not only would be better in other countries but in fact was better in other countries. Note that several other countries had reported coronavirus cases before any location outside Wuhan had reported such cases.
Is it really plausible that other countries were getting multiple cases but that none had reached Hunan, Shanghai, Beijing? Of course not. That's why Chinese refer to it as a "patriotic" illness that strikes only foreigners.
In Hong Kong and Taiwan, for example, we have Chinese populations that have handled coronavirus responsibly and promptly. We are all reasonably confident in the Hong Kong and Taiwan numbers, while everybody believes that the China number is a vast undercount.
208
@Nicholas Kristof
There seems to be concensus among epidemiologists that China's numbers are a vast undercount. But please remember that there was NO test for the virus as there was no sequence. Furthermore, even now, they do not have enough testing kits because of the extraordinary demand - and remember that this is a new virus recognized less than two months ago and it takes time to design and then manufacture testing resources and to get them out to underequipped rural areas in China. I wouldn't be so fast to blame undercounting on manipulation.
25
@Theresa The key here is suspicion of manipulation because there is no free press. A crucial difference between China and these other countries whose counts are trusted.
11
Let's not forget how aggressively our current government is working to accelerate climate change. It also acts to muzzle or discredit scientific consensus about the dangers of rising temperatures and the millions of climate refugees that will inevitably result, all for the short term economic gains in fossil fuel industry. Even now, the current administration is attempting to punish the entire state of California for its more stringent auto emissions standards.
And then there was the decades long controversy about whether or not tobacco use causes cancer, when the medical professionals and other activists had to fight the government to act. Again, our government sided for years with the tobacco industry against the welfare of the people, just as it now sides with the NRA to prevent sensible gun legislation.
1
This is terrible. Chinese people are dying by the hundreds, sickened by the thousands, and frightened by the billions. And you're taking this opportunity to lob political criticisms at the Chinese government? You sound like Trump, except even Trump isn't using this crisis opportunistically.
How is the WORLD paying for China's dictatorship? Every single death has been in China. Chinese people are the ones suffering.
I don't even understand what your argument is. If China had a democratically elected government it would have acted more quickly? Our government has spent the last 10 years denying the existence of climate change, how's that for quick?
"The government finally ordered a lockdown on Jan. 23 that effectively quarantined people in Wuhan. But by then, according to the mayor, five million people had already fled the city."
You think they should have quarantined Wuhan when there were only 10 cases instead of waiting to see if it was an epidemic? That's making the case for more authoritarianism, not less. You think our government would quarantine New York City? Half the city would need to be infected to make something like that politically palatable.
"One reason for the early cover-up is that Xi’s China has systematically gutted institutions like journalism..."
If there were more journalists (like yourself) in China this whole thing could have been avoided? YOU are the only thing standing between us and infectious disease. Thank you so much for your service.
4
"The coronavirus has already reached the Xinjiang region in the Far West of China, and one risk is that it will spread in the internment camps where China is confining about one million Muslims with poor sanitation and limited health care."
Seems, given how the Uighurs have been treated to this point, like that would be a feature rather than a bug.
Regarding the Wuhan doctor who was reprimanded for raising the alarm in December : I immediately thought of Dr Bennett Omalu, whose career was destroyed by the NFL when he published research on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in football players. Our government stood aside and said nothing, even though thousands of children, teenagers, and college students continue to play this dangerous sport. Or the years when the CDC has been forbidden to compile statistics on gunshot wounds as a cause of death, in this case because our government acts as an enforcer for the NRA. There's plenty of blame to go around when this type of thing occurs. I agree with ACH from Berkeley, who argues for a bit of perspective.
2
"One reason for the early cover-up is that Xi’s China has systematically gutted institutions like journalism, social media, nongovernmental organizations, the legal profession and others that might provide accountability. "
Glasshouses.
As we plunge headlong into a science hating, post-truth dictatorship of our own this is like the handwriting on the wall...
2
People has allowed the brilliant rise of China over the last couple of decades to blind them to some basic facts about its government. If anyone has bothered to read Yang Jisheng's book entitled "Tombstone," which is a expose on 1950's China and the starvation deaths of over 35 million Chinese citizens due to the complete ineptitude of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), then you cannot be surprised by how things are going today.
The ineptitude and sheer ideological stupidity of that era is manifesting today. And why not? The political structure in power during that time is the same one in power today. In the end none of what they do is about their people. It is about maintaining their grip on Power.
So it goes.
John~
American Net'Zen
2
Yesterday a WHO official praised the swift actions the Chinese authorities took to contain the virus as uncomparable. But it's all about information control, isn't it?
1
With friends like China who needs enemies?
"And the scales shall fall from their eyes." Welcome to the club, Nick. It took you long enough.
You many not know that but there is some of that going on in the US. Tell the truth and you could be seen as a problem with serious consequences.
2
This is superb, Nicholas. Here is your sentence for all time: “When you squelch independent voices you end up getting just flattery and optimism from those around you.” And reality disappears. And the people suffer. China’s had Mao and now Xi and Russia with Stalin, Lenin, Putin....on and on. The people always pay the price. Sounds quite familiar. May the impeachment of DJT lead to his removal so we can reclaim our country and so the USofA does not sink into a dictatorship.
3
White Western guy always needs to tell the rest of the world they're doing it wrong. It's called American exceptionalism. Let me know when this flu gets up to the regular flu numbers, which is (the low-end of estimations) at 8,000 since Oct. 2019. Maybe the globe can work on saving all those lives before next season, too. But the media just loves causing panic. How these nationalist guys can write this while Trump is the 'dictator' here is truly amazing.
1
For once, readers should just soak in these words.
Rather than attack, rather than defend, just soak in Mr. Kristof's words.
1
Come on Nicholas. Authoritarian? Yes. Dictatorship? No.
You could just as well be talking about Trump and the USA. Trump has slackened USDA oversight. The USA's consumption of factory farmed meat is excessive, is bad for our health and is destroying the environment.
How would the USA do in this same situation? Just look at the number of lies and the coverups from the Trump administration in the past three years.
We have the same combination of tyranny and incompetence. Preening dictator indeed. Try not to be so smug.
4
Tyrannies can never handle bad news. They're a culture of fear and blame, so no one ever wants to take responsibility when things go wrong. First they'll deny anything happened, then they'll minimize, then they'll finger someone else, and only under massive pressure with no other options will they admit the truth. Same story with Ukrainian Airlines 752, Chernobyl, and all the rest.
1
For a while Xi has seemed invincible. His anti corruption movement effectively got rid of political rivals such as Bo Xi Lai. He clamped down on the media, tightened control over citizens” access to the internet, And suppressed minorities who ere too powerless to fight back. Xi even effectively made himself president for life, and for someone still in his mid sixties, such growing absolute power that can extend for another two decades is frightening. Yet just as he seems unstoppable the Wuhan virus reveals his Achilles Heels. It is tragic that many lives are affected because of the epidemic, but it does give hope that Xi”s dictatorial position might be more untenable than it seems.
1
CDC estimates that, from October 1, 2019, through January 18, 2020, there have been in the U.S.:
- 15,000,000 – 21,000,000 flu illnesses
- 7,000,000 – 10,000,000 flu medical visits
- 140,000 – 250,000 flu hospitalizations
- 8,200 – 20,000 flu deaths
Unremarkable numbers compared to the previous years. No new viruses. Nothing to do with China. Not newsworthy.
And the United States government is currently known for its openness, honesty and use of science, right?
If the virus hits hard here, what are we to believe?
1
Hmmm. Sounds a lot like Donald Trump.
At the end of the day, Xi and Trump -- and Putin and Erdogan and too many others -- are the same person.
Xi and Trump are too egotistical and power hungry to allow the voice of others, and so bellicose that they end up undercutting themselves.
It’s a healthy form of journalism that Nicholas responds to writers in the comments section.
I am old enough to know about all the denials that went on in this country during the first few YEARS of the AIDS epidemic. It's too facile to blame dictatorship or whatever. As you must know, "the mountains are high, and the emperor is far away"..Even in this day and age, the local officials remain powerful and they control what goes on in their province. I would not ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to wishful thinking and ignorance. As @ACH has mentioned, China has moved fast in sequencing the genome and making it available to the worldwide community. I for one am astounded that the spread of the virus is as limited as it has been in a country of a billion plus people and travel to and from China is on an unprecedented scale.
11
Author has done a great job in highlighting how Communist Government led by Xi has failed in contaminating Coronavirus during its initial stage. It's also infuriating to learn how local officials were denied the right to speak, putting a huge blockade for free flow of information.
International Communities should come together in condemning Xi's handling of Coronavirus and there should be accountability at global stage to let Beijing know its mistake. Such measures will send a strong message to all the countries to treat Coronavirus-like-situation in utmost transparency and emergency.
From this epic Xi's failure, all of us can learn that freedom of speech and expression are critical in solving problems and not the other way around.
"But, with a dose of humility, let’s get over any misplaced admiration some Americans have for Xi’s authoritarian model.
He’s a preening dictator, and with this outbreak some citizens are paying a price."
Doing anything about the dictatorship in China is a ship that has long since sailed. In years past forward thinking individuals in the US have claimed the US has no business interfering in the internal affairs of the PRC. Western powers had done that for over a century and we were informed those days were over. The PRC was and remains a dictatorship. The opening of relations with China and its integration into the world economy was hailed as a step forward for the world in general. But no one should have expected anything different than the governance model we see in place today.
We have the China we have and no one should have expected anything different. That includes the citizens of Hong Kong. Any transient observations you had should have been understood to be short lived - your surprise in 2003 notwithstanding.
"Education" and "criticism" have been tools used by the PRC for years, actually for as long as I can remember. I used to complain about those actions but that was labelled "Cold Warrior" rhetoric. I was an active participant in Cold War V1.0. I'm sitting out Cold War V2.0 but am getting a good laugh at all the "Oh the humanity" rhetoric.
But you did get in a dig at Trump and Bloomberg so there's that.
China's response to this sounds chillingly like the way the Soviet Union's government responded to the first reports coming to them about Chernobyl. They finally accepted the truth before it was too late for everyone else in the world, lets pray that China has too.
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Kudos to Mr. Kristof for his humanitarian and sympathetic appreciation of the tremendous efforts the government of the People's Republic of China is making towards battling this new health threat to our entire global village . . . And while he is rejoicing in his neighbor's house burning down, he might realise that lending a hand, instead, might save his own, American house . . .
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In addition to the points raised in Mr. Kristof’s article, China should be severely reprimanded for allowing conditions to exist that promote the inter species exchange of virulent pathogens and their concomitant potential for creating novel and potentially deadly disease. China has long been on notice that its trade in illegal wildlife as well as its handling and processing of exotic fauna in the name of gastronomic delicacies poses a severe and wholly foreseeable risk of creating the situation the world finds Itself in today. Even if Chinese officials somehow missed the implication of SARS in 2002-2003, how could they not recognize what eventually became a common, even stereotypic, scenario for the creation of a deadly virus with the potential for killing millions worldwide? See, e.g., the Hollywood movie Contagion which made crystal clear the wholly foreseeable risk posed by wet markets. Such markets bring together normally disparate species under one roof creating what amounts to a unique, man-made laboratory for the creation of new, exotic, and potentially super-deadly viruses. China should get its act together and stop these practices. If raping the natural world is not sufficient incentive, one would think the disease and death of its own citizens would be.
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As far as I am concerned, the horse escaped the barn long ago and it isn't completely the fault of China. If this virus really does have such a long--but apparently infectious--incubation period, so many people would be infected before knowing it, spread it around similar to other virus infections (who here can say they always stay home when they are sick?!), and may have recovered without ever knowing they had a coronavirus infection. They may have just though it was another upper respiratory virus. And since it is possible that many people were actually never sick enough to warrant medical intervention, just coping with their illness with tea and sympathy.
The current fatality rate is around 2% which is lower than the 2019 U.S. flu rate of 2.6%. Not to downplay death but if there are many people with limited symptoms that weren't diagnosed with coronavirus, the fatality rate may actually be lower. Fast spreading viruses are scary, especially with modern global reach, but let us just practice standard methods for prevention an infection. Wash your hands frequently and do't go out when you are sick. But mainly WASH YOUR HANDS!
We just don't know yet.
If we are to lower the number of U.S. death occurring because people failed to take flu vaccines or measles vaccines, then those individuals need to be inoculated. Would Mr. Kristof favor compulsive measures to force them to take their shots, such as denying such people a driver license or school enrollment of their children? I would - If we are going to compliment China on doing a better job than we did, we need to consider the measures that may be involved.
Xi is the head of the CCP and as such Premier of the People's Republic, the most populous country on Earth and one of the most powerful men alive. That's how he, like most world leaders, rolls. Would you expect any different from Trump, who can't even bring himself to release his 1040's?
It is both curious and instructive how authoritarian regimes (or authoritarian wannabees) handle these types of crises ... the lying ... the silencing of the truth tellers ... the sheer obviousness of the cover-up.
Did Xi really think that no one was going notice a break out of a deadly virus? Did Gorbachev and the Central Committee think that no one would notice the world's worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl? Does Trump and the Republican Party really believe they can cover up climate change indefinitely? That no one will notice the eventual relocation of millions of people from coastal areas, the unending wildfires and all the rest?
In two out of three cases mentioned above we are talking about intelligent leaders who are not easily fooled. Even domestically, the fool in the Oval Office and those in Congress have access to the truth. Ultimately the cover-up isn't really about convincing people that what they can see with their own eyes isn't happening. It isn't even always about money.
It's just authoritarians (and our domestic wannabees) reasserting their power to replace facts with fictions, replace thought and learning with blind obedience, and to define reality as they see fit always ready to attack those who dare to speak the obvious.
It's not a solution or a plan. Just a power play. You believe what we tell you to believe: The virus is under control, there is no radiation leaking, the world is not warming.
Are you with us? Or are you the enemy?
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This seems unfortunately well reasoned.
Dictators dictate, Leaders lead, and a very stable genius brags on FOX and pontificates about “ ratings “ of opponents.
What, Exactly, do we do to deserve Him ?
Seriously.
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Seems to me that China and XI are moving rapidly to address this outbreak from cordoning off and locking down entire cities to rapidly building a hospitals at a record speed. On the other hand, there may have been test labs for deadly weaponized viruses in the Wuhan area from which the corona virus escaped.
And when the coronavirus begins to spread here in the US, we'll get another fresh taste of just how "great" American is now under the ruthlessly incompetent Trump and the know-nothing sycophants he has placed in charge of our major departments.
Large scale and expansive cover-ups and vilifying whistleblowers leads to mass death---of people and of countries like the US.
I fail to see the value of quarantining large numbers (like millions) of Chinese in reduction of spread of this epidemic. Quarantines always leak; the classic case of Mary Mallon (aka Typhoid Mary) resuming work as a cook (and spreading more typhoid) merely by changing her name applies here as well but only on a larger scale.
One other questions occurs to me. How did the Chinese learn 2019-nCoV even existed? They must have had a concern based on their experience with SARS. And what surveillance system exists in our country's CDC what with the deliberate lurch of our current administration away from science?
"When you squelch independent voices you end up getting just flattery and optimism from those around you. "
Oh my, this sounds familiar. Our country has a want-to-be-dictator who is doing his best to squelch independent journalism and only keeps in his administration those who flatter and tell him how 'great' he is doing.
Our country is not in good shape to fight this coronavirus. We have millions of people with no health insurance. We have millions more who can't afford their deductible or co-pay. People who are barely squeezing by economically most likely will get very ill before going to an emergency room to get any treatment or quarantine.
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Even if Xi’s government had been perfect in its response, his horrible dystopian rule would still deserve criticism. What about the fact that the origin of this disease as well as most other flus is located in China’s wild animal meat markets as well as in its animal farming methods putting humans in close contact with farm animals. This has been known for decades and the Chinese no longer have the excuse that they are poor backward country. The main thing backward in China today is the government.
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@lester ostroy What's the difference between eating wild animal meat and eating wild or fresh fish?
"And act decisively they did — not against the virus, but against whistle-blowers who were trying to call attention to the public health threat. "
Who else hates whistleblowers and commands citizens to not speak?
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" yet China’s economy is now as weak as it has been in three decades " That is totally ridiculous. Just look at what China's GDP was in the 90s vs today. How about around 500B vs now over 11 trillion. I could point out much more but this is such an absurd statement I really don't need to go further.
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President Xi, despite his mistake in handling this matter, is still WAY better than the dictator currently undergoing an impeachment trial here in the US.
With a lot more clear, scientific information, and decades of data, Trump can't even admit that climate change is real. In doing so, he puts the entire nation, indeed the entire planet at great risk for consequences much more dire than the coronavirus.
Xi suppressed information, probably to avoid panic. It was a bad idea. But Trump promotes massive amounts of disinformation. His favorite "news" channel is Faux Noise because they're willing to push his disinformation campaigns: "Windmills cause cancer!" Together, Faux Noise and Trump have effectively brain washed about 40% of America with a non-stop depiction of alternative reality.
Republican presidents have a terrible track record of handling epidemics, too. Reagan would not even use the word AIDS at the height of one of the worst epidemics in US history! Much less did Reagan do anything to prevent the spread and find treatments.
Forget China's dictator. I'm MUCH more worried about America's dictator. He's way more unhinged and unscrupulous than President Xi could ever be. And Trump will end up causing more death and destruction than Xi could do.
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Don't worry Mr. Kristof, Trump is doing everything in his power to control information in the Senate rather than resign and stop the corruption. Once Trump is fully ensconced as a dictator he will make sure that information doesn't flow.
Note that it was not some "illegal" bringing the disease over our borders either. So that's another GOP talking point downed by reality.
Don't you remember the old adage: People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
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Super work Nicholas. Thank you very much. I'd just like to add that ending the disgusting and dangerous trade in dead and increasingly endangered wild animals for food or medicine use in China is very much in President Xi's hands. I fear such is felt by him and other Han Chinese to be essentially tied in the past, now and for all time, with people of his and their ethnicity, when such is actually a big, fat lie. It is merely "traditional" and some "traditions" need to die. If he doesn't act it will die anyway through the extinction of the various species concerned. Kudos for remembering the USA is a far from perfect example of why democracy is demonstrably better than a one party dictatorship or an autocracy.
Good points. And, we are all complicit. We love Wal-Mart and all the cheap stuff we can buy. We don't care where it comes from. We don't care if the Waltons have over $100 billion or if China puts Muslims in prison. Don't care.
We're bad at real and honorable citizenship. We don't talk about so many issues of importance. We love our shows and sports and anything besides politics and economics.
Well, get real: it's always politics and economics. This includes the grotesque inequality in the US and the climatic catastrophe circling us all. It includes China. And, it also includes our very souls.
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Thanks, @NickKristof, for reminding us of what authoritarian rule looks like. More than timely these days...
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Ban any flights from China until the epidemic is resolved.
Watching the series Chernobyl. the desire to please higher ups and the fear of punishment for being the bearer of bad news creates a crisis because the leader only hears good news. It is in the citizens self interest to lie until catastrophe occurs and then it isn’t. Anyone see any global warming analogies in our fake news anti-facts and science administration ?
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President Xi,
Unlike your citizens, viruses don't obey dictators. And, they don't respect orders. Whether you like it or not, we're all in this together. Silencing others helps no one.
Thanks,
The rest of us.
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China-bashing is in vogue across USA. By the tone of his op-ed Nicholas Kristof is chomping at the bits to lead the charge. It is propaganda 101 to paint the "enemy" as the villain that everyone should fear. Xi Jinping is Kristof's target bogeyman. "Preening dictator"?
Have to agree with Kristof on this point: USA is in no position to lecture anyone about health. China is by no means flawless, up and down Chinese society they still have a lot of problems to solve. But China has demonstrated by its track record as a fast learner. Kristof will be disappointed just like other predictors of China's pending crash.
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Politicking at this moment of global health crisis, as this piece intentionally or unintentionally is trying to do, is not helping. Humanity needs objective assessments of the worsening situation including what could be learned so far to contain the virus spreading. The measures that China has taken are historically unprecedented. Xi is depicted as dictator for good reasons, however, the crisis this time had more to do with the greediness of those "experts" sent to Wuhan by central government to investigate and monitor the disease. They withheld critical information about the high propensities of man to man spreading of the coronavirus for personal gain of publishing data in top journals. This, in no small part, led to the delayed actions. The entire world scientific community needs to learn from this hugely painful lesson.
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The Chinese should continue to embrace their "cultural values," which are its weakness and engender hatred and contempt the world over. Ask Africans how the Chinese have behaved on a macro and micro level. Complain about Coca Cola and Levis and other American physical and cultural exports, but consider what China has to offer a modern, diverse world. If you and your family manage to survive their latest export.
One lesson I hope the Chinese finally learn this time: it’s a really, really bad idea to eat wild animals. The DNA of the coronavirus ultimately derives from viruses from poisonous snakes, offered for sale in the Wuhan seafood market. The Chinese government regulates so many aspects of its citizens’ lives; maybe they should try to eliminate the marketing of wild beasts for food. (Sure beats cleaning up after yet another epidemic and hoping that we won’t get another 1917 flu.)
So please tell me what is the difference between China’s leadership,on this; the GOP Senate on the President or the President on climate change?
We humans have had over 100 years to correct the error of referring to the pandemic of the misnamed “Spanish flu” that infected over 500 million and killed over 50 million.
That also originated in China in the mid 1910s, but, then, as now, Chinese authorities (reporting ultimately to the Emperor, NOT Communist Party officials or a “dictator”) suppressed the information and punished those who tried to get the information out.
So we have an apples to apples comparison of a non-communist and non-dictator led China in a pandemic crisis with a Communist one,
I think the Communist government response is 100x superior. Don’t you? Wouldn’t everyone who knew this?
It’s worth pointing out the Chinese Communist Party does not get enough credit for the lives saved by instituting the One Child Per Family policy. I think the CCP should get receive the Nobel Peace Prize for this.
A western style democratic government would have allowed a currency population of 2.5 billion people to be in an area with only 6% of the world’s fresh water. And I doubt that country would be the world leader in both manufacturing and installing solar photovoltaics and other types of clean energy.
The alternate history China of 2.5 billion people in 2020 would not have lifted so many its citizens out of poverty. It would not have become the world’s largest creditor to the developing world, extending $5 trillion in loans. It would be a source of far more pandemics, and be far more quiet about them.
People love to tout the effectiveness of dictators. Its hard to remember that they can control public perception of themselves, generally. But not always: reality bites back in a big way, and the curtain lifts. When it counts, their weakness shows. One monkey alone, no matter how powerful, can't stop the show.
The Chinese Supreme Court has reversed the criminal charges against the 8 doctors and praised them as heroes.
As a reporter, you can't just pick the part of the story you find helpful to make your point and ignore the other part. You lose credit by doing do.
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Only the very Rich thrive in any Dictatorship, for awhile. Eventually the Rulers are overthrown, often abruptly and violently.
Just saying.
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Let's also get over any feelings of superiority here: there but for the grace of God go we--for now.
China's rigid information control has undoubtedly exacerbated a terrible crisis, but even with good information, is the US health system ready for an outbreak?
Millions are without health care, millions more have poor access to care, and still more are not financially stable enough to endure a serious illness in their family-- and all are terrified of the financial consequences brought by the emergency room. When the crisis is a virus, that's a recipe for disaster.
At the same time, the White House is occupied by the man least prepared to handle a crisis. (I would predict video of Trump throwing paper towels at people, but he is too much a coward to actually visit a site hosting victims.) And if the virus spreads to a City that he believes is a "Democratic city", will he even pretend to help? Or will he just tweet vindictive bile?
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- Xi is also imprisoning/killing corrupt bureaucrats, greening vast portions of the Gobi desert, converting the country to sustainable energy, and setting up a trade infrastructure that will guarantee Chinese economic dominance of Asia and Africa for the next 100 years.
- They have a terrific night life in China, where women, children, and the elderly are free to roam the streets at night without fear of getting shot or mugged.
- Drugs, gambling, and guns are all illegal.
- They have the best train system in the world and new highways everywhere.
- Phone payment for all manner of goods is ubiquitous.
- Their people are extremely hard working and save much of what they earn.
- Their education system completely blows the U.S. out of the water.
- They have had +6% GDP growth for over 30 years.
Just wanted to put things in perspective.
Mr. Kristof, thank you for having the courage to elucidate what others seem far too afraid to report, and to the NYT’s for printing. Waiting almost a month to even alert the WHO about a novel corona virus and then doing nothing while 5 million people left Wuhan should not bring kudos from around the world praising XI. Allowing the deadly live exotic animal markets to remain open so long after SARS occurred was a disaster in waiting. I’m glad someone with your extensive knowledge and experience in China has the guts to call this secretive and oppressive regime what it is.
The Chinese nationalist system not only calls on its citizens to give up everything for the government but due to the inability to contain viruses, we might be called on to give everything to their government as well.
I think your criticism of Chinese Government is fair. I would hope that you praised healthcare workers who are bravely doing their best. I think in epidemics such as these you have two main problems - managing the disease and managing information. You do not have to be a dictator to mess up the later. Many African leaders who were not necessarily dictators mismanaged the Ebola outbreak. I think it is also fair to question certain practices of a society which increase the hazard many fold - handling the dead in Africa, eating wildlife in China etc. You also failed to comment on the governmental structure in China where bad news is kept away from the central leadership as they tend to shoot the messenger.
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While reading this my mind kept wandering back to our present political environment. What would make us think that Trump would not react similarly as Xi if allowed to. After all, Trump not only admires this modern-day dictator, but also, I believe, aspires to be like him. And I am seeing - and barely enduring - his own Party too cowardly and too afraid to rein in their mercurial and unstable leader. Yes, we are not suppressed...yet. Yes, thank God, our freedom of speech, the press, and assembly are not taken from us...yet. But let us not be naive or ignorant to the fact that under this administration the days of a thriving democracy and strong Constitution are being threatened on a daily basis.
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Gorbachev has said that the Chernobyl disaster was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.
There, too, the nuclear physicists were afraid to tell the truth to their higher ups. And, disaster ensued.
China has had a long history (centuries) of political instability. This “Communist Party” era shall too pass, and only be remembered in the dusty history books.
And, remember how we thought Japan was the rising power back in the ‘80s. Ha! China power, too, will be seen as a temporary chimera.
How will president Trump handle the Coronavirus epidemic in America? We are witnessing today an epidemic like the Spanish Flu that decimated populations around the world in 1918, as the Bubonic Plague devastated Europe in the 1400s, 50 million people killed.
Nick Kristof, you say that Xi Jinping's dictatorship in China has crushed civil society and allowed the Coronavirus virus to spread. Wouldn't President Trump's unlimited executive powers of his presidency (as Alan Dershowitz advocated virally in Trump's Senate Impeachment Trial yesterday) make Donald Trump America's first President-Dictator? And how many people will die in our hemisphere when this 21st century plague hits us?
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Yes, of course, a system of government in China that allowed more freedom of expression rather than too often punishing those who speak up or might be “whistleblowers” would benefit their nation and the world. Sadly, we don’t need to look far to see that our government is quite flawed. When you have a major U.S. political party attempt to discount and hide the truth about Ukraine (and “out” the whistleblower and discredit every other person who has testified) or even more troubling for our world call climate change a hoax America has significant “sins” of its own.
I am sure many of the comments published in The NY Times would not appear in any paper or online in China. But, with many legislators refusing to listen to our voices, our cries for government assistance or at least encouragement regarding health care, climate, gun violence, opioids, etc.,etc. it is almost as bad. Yes, vote!
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Excellent column. I travelled to China about 40 times between 2008 and 2018 to improve air quality. On that issue, they've gotten right. But, like Nicholas, I've also witnessed the increasing strangling of information. Even with a VPN, it is almost impossible to access the NY Times website in China. And, to get a sense of how you are monitored, after I published a supportive comment on a Keith Bradsher article about China's efforts to reduce pollution, I was blocked from the NY Times for 24 hours. One should assume that every keystroke is monitored. On Skype calls, my wife and I would joke that we should pretend to be engaging in wild and dirty sexual talk just to get a rise out of the people that we knew were listening to us.
The One Child Nation movie shows the complicity of Chinese people to simply obey orders, even when they know they are wrong. (that didn't work for Lt. Calley either..). Xi is known as "Mao Version 2.0", and he has broad support from the people.
But, I believe a combination of how China is reacting to this virus, coupled with the horrible construction methods (I routinely saw 1 inch by 25 foot cracks in new concrete in luxury hotel stairways), and the lack of a population to support the elderly will accelerate the speed with which Xi will be unable to stay in power. And, we know from history that those results can be very ugly for a time.
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And adding salt to injury, China is hellbent on blocking Taiwan, a country which can be a proactive participant in containing corona virus, from joining World Health Organization under United Nation. For a health organization that should be building an effective global health network, WHO's political kowtowing to China is not only unfortunate, it is dangerous.
2
A little perspective is needed here. Experts in virology and epidemology, as opposed to pundits with a ideological ax to grind, have all praised China's response. In the middle of flu season, the Chinese were able to identify, isolate, and sequence a totally new virus in two weeks--an incomparable medical hat trick; able to trace it down to the first outbreak; shut down the probably cause; implement prophylactic measures; while mobilizing 1000's of doctors to the afflicted areas--and avoid a panic. Note also, nocebo effects are real; and a panic based on rumors could have created the epidemiological equivalent of a bank run.
Compare that to what the US did for Southern California 2009 H1N1 A flu: allowed to it spread rampant with no concern for borders or for its neighbors. At the end of that "democratic"-capitalist-laissez-faire experiment, between 150,000-575,000 people--80% under 65--lay dead in hospitals, mortuaries, and streets, mostly in the impoverished South.
Or if memory fails, more recently, the 8200 people who have died since last October, or the 1400 people who died last week from the flu in the US.
But to consider the above facts would mess with your narrative of White, American, Capitalist supremacy. So you prefer, when human beings are suffering--and trying their absolute best--not to pass up an opportunity to bash China and the Chinese. And people wonder why we are headed towards war.
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@ACH
Not so fast. You're willing to give credit to the chinese for finding the virus in two weeks, but you're saying nothing of their much grander failure of allowing wild animal and bat meat markets to continue to operate for years after they recognized the great danger of them? No, the chinese society does not deserve any credit here. In fact, this whole predictable event reinforces the superiority of what you phrase to be a "White, American, Capitalist supremacy". The chinese deserve every bit of bashing they receive for putting the world health into sudden crisis. Have you any idea of the economic costs bearing down on all countries now, having their manufacturing suspended in many cases, and having their consumers staying at home for fear of catching a deadly disease? It's huge.
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@ACH Thanks for your comment, but I disagree. There is indeed a risk of panic, but that's what happens when there isn't reliable information. Five million people fled Wuhan because the only thing they had to go on was street rumors; the mayor himself said that he wasn't authorized to speak until about Jan. 20, well after cases had been reported in foreign countries. In a normal country, the Wuhan and Hubei papers would have reported this in late December when officials were having all-night meetings, fewer people would have had big events in Wuhan, and people would have been somewhat more careful. And eight front-line doctors wouldn't have been persecuted by the police for trying to call attention to the problem.
I'd also note that this isn't unique. Roughly the same pattern occurred with SARS and again with the swine flu in China.
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@Nicholas Kristof What about the fact that there has been virtually no coverage whatsoever in the mainstream press including the NYTs, about @ACH's point of the numbers of deaths from influenza this year. The only reason we are a bit more informed now is that the headlining of corona virus in China has forced some journalists (albeit late) to ask about homegrown infection and deaths here. And where is coverage of how much or little US epidemiologists and physicians cooperate with and alert their counterparts overseas of the spread of influenza from the states? It's remarkable that the politics of US coverage of China's emergency including your OP-Ed have only been raised in this hidden comment section to your article. Thank you @ACH for doing so.
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Having received letters from Chinese friends on the mainland I can say they are scared. But I have not them complain about the government's handling of this crisis.
It seems like many in the media will take every opportunity to criticize China's governing mechanisms whenever there is a problem there.
I would just say that China is not an easy country to govern. First, there are five times as any people there as we have in the USA. There are many ethnic groups and hundreds of dialects, and lots of natural features like mountains and rivers to keep people apart.
Once in a while, it would be gratifying to hear, especially from a responsible and wise columnist like Mr Kristof, some words of support and wishes for a quick solution for us all.
I know, and I believe Mr Kristof knows also, kind words of support from the West would be much appreciated and long remembered in China.
20
@Dennis : Thank you for your comment. I too am surprised by the constant bashing of China by the NYT. There has been so many positive developments in China during Xi's rule. Yet somehow the Western press cannot see any of them. Eventually these 1.4 billion hard working people will be the richest on the planet. It seems from a strategic point of view that it would be good to be friends with them.
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@David Bosak
If you ever visit the US, you will find that criticism of China under Xi is warranted.
@Dennis The comments to this piece are suspicious to me. I think they are constructed from within China. The grammar, the phrasing, the mere length of many comments do not seem at all like the comments I usually read in the NYT. It sounds to my ear like the Chinese employ people to respond to any criticism of their government and are doing so here.
3
"against the whistleblowers..." Sound familiar? Donald Trump is about to become acquitted without witnesses because the true patriots of the US, the whistleblowers - were made into and depicted as criminals. Trump is the most authoritarian president in our history, and another 4 years will only allow him to use his power even more excessively. Please people - look at what's happening in China because it is a true harbinger of what could eventually happen to the America we know and love.
2
Thanks sharing another worthwhile piece. I seem to read everything with a myopic lens these days because the quote that stood out most to me was: "...When you squelch independent voices you end up getting just flattery and optimism from those around you..." because that is exactly how it appears many of our current leaders would prefer it to be here too.
Also - it is a credit to China and rather shameful for the US if "a baby born in Beijing today has a longer life expectancy than a baby born in Washington, D.C."
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Can't argue with the op-ed about dictatorships, and how they control the narrative. It can and does lead to events such as this new virus breakout.
But then you have a Democracy that is murdering thousands and thousands of citizens year in and year with guns. And this democracy does nothing about it. Then this crisis of opioids that was spawned by the pharmaceutical companies and medical community. And thousands are being killed by that too.
We really need to clean up our house too.
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@cherrylog754 I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say except labeling the U.S. as a Democracy. It is not, really. I would go further than your comments. We have a regime in place here that actively suppresses any research on the gun trauma epidemic, and continues to do very little about the opioid epidemic, with a death toll of some 477,000 in the U.S. alone (CDC statistic is 702,000 drug overdose deaths 1999-2017; estimated 68% due to opioids for 2017). It actively and passively does everything possible to oppose public understanding of climate change and to oppose any remedy or even lessening of the ongoing rate of change, which will ultimately result in far more human deaths and misery than the new virus is likely to do. So, actually, what the current U.S. government is doing is exactly homologous to China, but much more damaging long term.
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@Adrian I would agree with you if this had been endemic in the U.S. This backward move was initiated by Trump. We managed to keep the ship upright before.
But what does shock me is the rapidity with which a certain segment of our population has embraced "know nothingism." This does not bode well for the future unless we get rid of the people promoting this "know nothingness."
I had hoped this impeachment trial would help us but the GOP Senators are too afraid of their overlord and their jobs to do anything but grasp at straws to do nothing.
Can we survive another four years of the Trumpian assault on our way of life?
29
@cherrylog754 If the lack of gun controls and the opioid crisis were traveling across national borders and infecting other countries and cultures, then you'd have an argument. They are nominally, but they are so unlike a viral infection as to be irrelevant. This coronavirus is a bird of an altogether different feather. In fact, it is apparently a bat.
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Why should we actually believe the coronavirus narrative. The CDC/WHO have been wrong (crimi8nally wrong) on pandemics so often that they need to provide real evidence. Remember the zika pandemic? Where are the vast numbers of microcephaly cases that never happened? Remember the swine flu pandemic? Another flop, with the CDC claiming tens of thousands of casualties that never happened but numerous cases of narcolepsy from the vaccine. The list goes on. Maybe this time they are right, but consider that the terrible air pollution in Wuhan and other Chinese cities has caused weakened the respiratory and immune systems of the population, making them more susceptible to infection.
Let me also mention Kesan's disease in China that ultimately was found to be the result of selenium deficiency in the soil. Pellagra was thought to be the result of some pathogen ,but was the result of niacin deficiency. We look for viral causes first (vaccines make money, after all) and ignore environmental and nutritional causes. To our peril but profit for the pharmaceutical industry.
Mr.Kristof, I'm no particular fan of China's government and I'm sure there are many shortcomings with their model. I'm also not going to defend what the Chinese government did relative to the outbreak of the coronavirus. But your column seems to be obsessed with president Xi Jinping being a "dictator", and perhaps by strict definition he may be. But the Chinese government doesn't seem to function that much differently than many governments. I certainly would not trust THIS government at the local, state or federal level to respond to a civil crisis in an expeditious manner; Hurricane Katrina, Puerto Rico two recent examples.
"Dictators often make poor decisions because they don’t get accurate information:" well, so do American Presidents, even in an alleged Democracy, i.e. Iraq, Vietnam. I'm not sure what your'e trying prove with the article, but for any and every miscue, falsehood, lie you find with the Chinese government, given time and resources, we can find them in the US government and virtually all others. It's human nature, right?
It's great that you keep us apprised of what's going on around the world, but be careful about throwing stones at other countries while your'e living in the glass house of America.
154
@KB The difference between Xi’s government and the others you refer to is that a Xi forced a change to China’s constitution that abolished the term limit for the premiership. He’s now dictator for life. I’ve little doubt that Trump would try do the same if he could, but I still retain the hope that we haven’t sunk so low as to let that happen. At least, not yet.
82
@KB
We should also remember that our own government has been deceiving us for decades: Pentagon papers, Afghanistan papers, all other instances when the government, anr capitalist private companies, have been lying to us, either to retain their power, or to accumulate more wealth.
We should clean up our own system, before daring to gratuitously criticize others. Or at least, come up with constructive measures to contribute to the remediation of the current threat....
WIth our system of for-profit medical care, I am not sure how this country would respond to a threat like coronavirus; we surely do not handle the relatively simple case of the measles mini-epidemic...
29
@Greg Colbert
In 2018, Trump publicly admired Xi's moves that could allow him to be President for Life and suggested that America should try that.
14
Thank you to Nicholas Kritof for this excelent column. I just wanted to point out that the pig epidemics he is refering to is probably not flu (influenza virus) but african swine fever, a severe disease of pigs induced by the ASF virus, which, in contrast to flu, is not a zoonotic agent (this virus does not infect humans).
Kristoff is right, and since Chinese state media cannot investigate the failures of its censorious communist system, we who live in freedom must constantly shine a light on the fruits of Xi Jinping Thought. All the more when people outside of China get infected and die. Indeed, turning a blind eye to authoritarianism constitutes a greater danger than Coronavirus.
1
Although I agree with many of your comments, I am not sure if a free democracy like the US could have reacted faster. In our age of misinformation, even with a free press, I shudder to think how an outbreak here in the US would have been spun by wingnuts in social media. Look at the vaccination debate.
In regard to the slowing growth rate in China, really there are two factors that drive this: 1. as their economy matures, their growth rate will slow; 2. the one-child policy has set them up to have a rapidly aging, and then shrinking population. The latter will drive down domestic growth even further.
This reluctance to report bad news reminds me of my experience in the US military. And I think similar things happened at Boeing. Somehow, a closed system with no external feedback seems inclined to control information and suppress "negativity," with bad results.
Interesting article Mr Kristof. Appalling remarks on the relative poor health status of Americans in some regions.
But, do you really think that the American government and public health authorities would react more quickly and openly than the Chinese? The anti-government, anti-health care, anti-vaxxer movements thrive in the US. Not happy with the Chinese approach but unsure that it would be much better in the US.
3
Mr. Kristof is a decent man, but he is wrong. In a country as populous and geographically dispersed as China, only an authoritarian regime could have controlled the virus as well as they have. If in the face of a potential epidemic the U.S. government tried to curtain travel or quarantine towns, 10,000 lawyers would have rushed to federal district courts seeking universal injunctions, and some of them would have gotten them. Remember the reaction when they government to quarantine people coming from an Ebola outbreak in Africa?
And so far, what the news media in the U.S. has accomplished is to create a panic here about the coronavirus and the hoarding of face masks.
3
Is Xi's behavior really much different in character than was the behavior of Bernie Sanders as Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee? As chairman, Bernie covered up and ignored the practice of his darling VA Hospital System to severely delay care of many patients, with the result that many died from the illnesses for which their care was delayed, and the rest suffered much more and for much longer than would have been the case if they received proper medical care.
Amazingly, we have a large number of people who want Bernie Sanders to be completely in charge of our health care, who want Bernie as president to operate an American system of both socialized medical care and socialized medical insurance.
1
The coronavirus is good news for job growth in the U.S. according to Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce. He tweeted that" coronavirus will be good for [checks notes] American jobs: "I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America."
Maria Bartiromo supported Ross " That's a good point".
Blame China if you will but celebrate the disease as a plus for jobs in the US.
I wonder if there are any other diseases that are fatal to people that we can see as a plus for US jobs?
Whoever says China is not a dictatorship should have their head examined for a reality check. Soviet Union did exactly the same thing when some unwelcome events happen, like Chernobyl. These countries are about power and keeping the status quo, whatever can threaten the stability of the regime will be either destroyed or negated. That said, I am afraid we are on the path to a fascist regime here, just looking at the absurdity of the President's defense in his impeachment trial and the fact that these statements are actually holding water with some lawmakers. Kafka couldn't come up with a better play.
3
Nicholas Kristof's insightful column reminds me of the U.S. government telling New Yorkers that the air was "safe" after the collapse of the World Trade Center.
Thousands have developed cancers as a result, and many died, and more are dying. This suggests the urgent need for create legitimate respected non-governmental organizations to provide information and advice in the future.
4
I have to keep asking myself, in amazement, why the world thinks that it is OK to raise animals in these horrible conditions of intensive confinement, and also to bring them into marks, living under deplorable conditions there. Aside from issues of cruelty to animals, how many epidemics, or even pandemics will occur for people to make the associations, determine how many things are wrong in animal agriculture as we now know it, and then decide there is a better way to produce food for the world? 1.4 billion that love their meat (I noted your mention of the incredible cost to the pig industry, and a lot of pork is eaten in China) ...well, it takes a lot of intensive confinement of millions of animals to meet that "meat" demand. When will humans make the connections? When will humans care enough, if not about the animals, then about the outbreaks produced by these industries.
9
There are lot of things not to like about China's system of government and the country's handling of the current corona virus epidemic.
The major of the problems arise from China's government controlled centralized economy, and China's highly centralized health care system.
You don't have to go to China to learn about such systems. All you have to do his read the policy statements of Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
This of course is not entirely fair; unlike China, Sen. Warren supports the democratic election of our government. And "medicare for all" does not, at least initially, mean a government takeover of the practice of medicine. But there is nonetheless some truth to my analogy.
Why is it that most people believe by default that an authoritarian government will gradually increase individual liberty and that the government will gradually become more accountable to the people it rules?
For decades, that has been the assumption regarding China. And the richer China became, the stronger was that assumption.
But I see no reason for such a belief. It seems to me that authoritarian governments become more authoritarian as time passes, especially if they attain diplomatic and economic successes since those seem to the dictators to confirm their belief in their own dictatorial legitimacy. There does seem to be a limit as eventually the authoritarian government is overthrown. But it is usually the case that an overthrown authoritarian government is immediately or soon replaced by another authoritarian government rather than one that guarantees individual liberty.
1
Well we certainly can't blame humans for overbreeding---making pandemics much more likely. Humans are so numerous we are now like a field of corn---very susceptible to things that want to eat it. And blame China? China is the only country that has taken on human numbers or we would have an additional billion of us, all needing energy, water, shelter, food and, let's just call it --stuff. And a 12% increase in CO2. And an even higher risk of pandemics.
1
This reminds me of the recent Netflix movie about the sinking of the Kursk, a Russian submarine, and the Russian government's inept handling of rescue efforts. Disasters such as the coronavirus pierce the veil of invincibility of authoritarian governments and reveal their vulnerability; they react harshly when confronted with their inability to deal with such crises.
5
No matter what, not just this virus but the influenza viruses themselves emerge, year after year, from Southeast Asia, most often historically from China, due to the animal farming and marketing practices. Keeping multiple kinds of animals together in close quarters with slaughtering and food production in the same proximity, leads to the intermingling of viruses and the greatly enhanced ability for them to mutate and develop new and stronger strains. We have known this for many decades and the Chinese government, which is authoritarian and has had and still has the power to do something about practices, has neglected to do so for all these years, spawning MERS, SARS, the swine flu epidemics, and this coronavirus. One can only hope this will move them to finally crack down decisively against their dangerous farming and market practices once and for all. It would have been so much easier and less expensive than building new hospitals in a matter of days or decimating your entire GDP for weeks or months.
4
If China were a democracy, would it have been able to contain this epidemic better? I honestly can't think so. At a local government level, officials in China have not, and would not, be experienced enough to recognize and take significantly more effective action. If anything, the crackdown on holiday travel by the central government would likely have occurred slower in a democracy leading to much faster spread around the country.
I understand the argument that the silencing of doctors contributed to a late response by the Chinese government, but I still find it hard to believe everything would have been much better in a democratic style government. China has such densely populated cities. I just hope they can contain it.
1
I taught in China on and off from 2000-2008 in a Chinese enterprise city. During my time there, I saw the country opening up. By my second teaching stint, I could get the Times on the internet, whereas in my first year, my only source were friends who emailed me articles. There was a real thaw with Taiwan, and although students and friends would not talk openly in public, they did in private. It was clear that Xi's actions in Hong Kong would hinder any chance of Taiwan making a deal to become part of the mainland. Other than this, I have thoroughly enjoyed your books with Ms Dunn.
1
Often said, "Truth is the first casualty of war." These days, it seems that war (against truth) has crept up and fooled us by being here all along.
5
Mr. Kristof, you're observations on the Chinese authoritarian model are spot-on, especially concerning this virus outbreak. And I hate to be the one to point out the elephant in the living room, but how can Americans observe the pitfalls of authoritarian government in China while simultaneously allowing the US to take giant leaps in the same direction? All of the mistakes you mentioned in your editorial are things that we are barreling toward at breakneck speed: suppressing dissent, punishing whistle-blowers, curbing the free press and social media, which would be immeasurably helpful in fighting the spread of the virus.
Yes, Xi allowed himself to be dragged, kicking & screaming, into doing the right thing - eventually. And perhaps the US, too, will somehow find a way to eventually work toward finding solutions, as we finally did with the AIDS crisis. But how many lives have to be lost in the process, while we're all stumbling around, trying to decide whether the authoritarian model of government is a good idea or not?
6
Kristof makes a valid point. In retrospect it is a powerful point. If medical professionals sounded an alarm in early December, as he states and if their voices were silenced by their government, then an early opportunity to minimize danger from this virus was lost, at the hands of government officials, although I suspect lower level officials afraid of displeasing their bosses. It reminds me of the willing obliviousness in this country, discounting the findings of scientists, a trend that may soon backfire and cause serious harm to us.
4
As Kristof put it, with a dose of humility I want to get over the misplaced admiration I had for the Chinese model of governance!
Zhang’s book China Shock and Sashi Tharoor’s book Pax Indica: India and World of the 21st Century are study in contrast of India and China.
These two public intellectuals show how India and China both see themselves as alternative models of development and world order that challenge the prevailing western-dominated international system.
But they offer different sorts of model as a replacement. China sees itself as an alternative to the US, and its liberal democracy and neo-liberal capitalism. India, on the other hand, presents itself as an Asian democratic alternative to China’s authoritarian capitalist model.
Zhang’s book is characterized by negative much more time criticizing India while Tharoor talks of the human cost of the China model, “because China’s breakneck speed of development has meant that "some necks have been broken". He concludes that while China has successfully built the "hardware" of development (infrastructure and industry), India is better at creating the "software" of development (technology, law and services)”.
But we’re now seeing the dangers of Xi’s authoritarian model, for China and the world.
More important, this crisis should provide some decisive inputs on China-India debate on the merits of democracy, providing an interesting twist to the popular thesis that sees democracy as "western" and order as "Asian".
4
It's always good to have Mr. Kristof's take on world affairs, especially those involving China, and this column seems another example of his good insight and judgment. About this: "Viruses are challenges for any country, and it’s only fair to note that China does a better job protecting its people from measles than the U.S. does." One has to assume (no link is provided) that this is due to the government's authority in China to mandate vaccinations -- if we made them mandatory we'd do better as well.
The place to stop epidemics is at the start. Most of the flu, SARS, and coronavirus outbreaks of the past twenty years began in southern China because of the confluence of humans, pigs, ducks, and certain species of bats that live in vast numbers and close quarters, producing an ideal environment for contagious viruses to mutate and jump between species. The solution isn't arm-waving, it is that China must modernize its agricultural sector, which will disrupt the lives of over a hundred million small farmers. Unfortunately there is no choice.
3
Persecution of whistle-blowers is not confined to China. It goes on all the time in all western countries to such a extent that some of these countries have enacted laws to protect whistle blowers in order to counteract the pervasive tendency in governments and corporation to silence criticism.
Nor is the tendency to suppress information flow and to cover up when faced with a serious crisis.
These traits are not 'Chinese', they are the result of people allowing their human nature and self concern to override wisdom, common sense, moral rectitude and courage.
4
Nicholas Kristof would rather criticize than cogently discuss a potential health issue. Fanning the flames and getting it wrong is pointless. The speed of the revelation about the outbreak of corona virus and for the world health alert is laudable given the location and form of government. Going back a generation, how did the Western media react to AIDS and reveal the truth about the transmission of that deadly virus prior to its global spread and casualty rate? It was years before reaction and medical information was forthcoming and it continued under the shadow of political correctness rather than science and truth, leading to infection and death for countless innocent victims.
Limiting and suppressing the dissemination of information Mr. Kristof attributes to Chinese dictatorship is systemic to the left regardless of location. It mirrors the suppression of a free press whether couched in political correctness or unapologetic communism.
2
Wow, sounds very familiar, doesn't it? With the Trump administration's denial of science and the decimation of key scientific government agencies, we could just as easily be in the same position as China.
And we're supposed to be a democracy.
6
In other words, dictatorships ultimately fail. Unfortunately, they take down a lot of good people with it.
Trump is not quite a dictator, yet. But he would like to be one, and folks like Dershowitz want to help him, in the name of executive authority -- a nice euphemism (even giving him the right to define words -- like "public interest.")
The blindness of so many Americans to this gives us an idea of why so many Chinese go along with their government. Make the connection, Mr. Kristoff. Don't leave it up to your readers to figure it out, please!
9
I just wanted to enquire whether anyone from China was actually interviewed about the reaction to the unknown virus. I stayed in Beijing, China from November to January as part of an exchange programme and the word of an unknown virus from Wuhan was already blowing up in early December. I think it's misleading to imply that the Chinese population were blind from this issue and that the government ket it secret from everyone. Many knew, and everyone was telling their children to wash their hands and to take caution due to the existence of the unknown virus - and this is in Beijing where there were no reported cases of this unknown virus anyway. Obviously my experiences don't speak to the whole population of China, but I realised if I already knew about it in probably around December 4th to 5th, surely a huge proportion of the population would have heard about it...SARS still is a scarring memory for everyone and when word got out of an ~unknown patient with an unknown virus~ (you get the ghist of what happened). Of course I'd expect the Chinese government did underestimate the scale of it but I do feel this article is heavily critical of Xi and gives a sense that there is no sense of freedom in China, without praising the vast improvement it has made since the disastrous SARS effort, its transparency over the deaths and infections etc. Living in China is completely different than what is written all over in the media.
4
Have you done the math? As it stands right now, the mortality rate of the corona virus is EXACTLY the same as the FLU: 2.2%. You are spreading fear, and the only ones who will benefit from this are Big Pharmaceutical Companies. Until it jumps to 5%, stop perpetuating fear.
5
Great description, but did you have to add the unrelated issue of measles and life expectancy as yet another way of criticizing the US? China handles measles better than the US because it can force all its people to get the vaccine, whereas in the US we have to deal with the pesky right of personal freedom that allows people to decide how to run their own lives. It was nice to see however, that you did not blame the coronavirus on Trump. Perhaps your TDS virus is wearing out :-))
2
A day of reckoning is coming for China's leader and system of government. Maybe not now, but soon.
1
A completely unwarranted attack on China!
The Chinese authorities swiftly identified and confirmed the new virus, provided detection and treatment, and quarantined millions of potential spreaders of the disease.
Such a response was possible because Chinese cities and provinces are highly organized, and the central government is decisive.
I fear you mistake talk for accomplishment, and loose speech for profound communication.
Just imagine an outbreak of a similar disease in Kentucky! The CDC would spend several weeks studying the situation and drafting recommendations to the Administration. Trump would denounce it as a hoax. Various members of Congress would speculate and postulate. The lack of medical personnel and facilities would limit effective diagnosis and treatment.
3
This wasn’t an attack on China, but a criticism of the communist dictatorship and their crimes against Humanity.
Dear Nicolas,
I am just wondering, how much did Xi really know about the outbreak from the start? No where in your article is able to prove this link. My suspicion here is that the local government of Wuhan knew about this and tried to cover it up, passing it off as a flu outbreak rather than a novel coronavirus. They only reported it to the Central Government when it got out of control. This occurred much later. And as some of the comments published here mentioned, your article ignores the fact that the Chinese response has been a vast improvement from how SARS was handled more than a decade ago, and several virology and infectious disease experts have praised its response. I think the Chinese people -- and government -- should be praised, in some ways at least, for their selfless response in many ways to the events that have happened. I felt your article neglected all the above facts, but thank you for sharing your opinion.
2
"Coronavirus Spreads, and the World Pays for China’s Dictatorship"
We can blame Dictatorship but don't we have the ability to robustly control the problem domestically through travel restrictions?
Perhaps one of the prices of planning travel to or doing business with a country with a reputation of originating SARS and Corona Virus is the possibility of disrupted travel. Robust travel restrictions might also make this a business and tourism issue for China and help motivate them to improve their health practices.
1
Mr. Kristof always comes across as well informed. In this piece he shares his considered opinion that China's dictatorship bears much responsibility for exposing the world to a greater threat than was necessary.
In elementary school (I graduated) it came up that when judging presidents, or kings, even governments for that matter, some consideration need be given to the the cards they are dealt, the situation they inherited.
What is the motivation for taking a dark view of China's response here. Is it to prevent a shift away from a globalist agenda?
We cannot know.
China once again is the source of a possible epidemic, the world will have to protect itself as well as possible.
Without really knowing all the facts and all the relevant factors shaping policy, fault finding seems empty.
Not that it isn't motivated by that non guarantor of bliss, good intentions.
"Dictators often make poor decisions because they don’t get accurate information: When you squelch independent voices you end up getting just flattery and optimism from those around you."
This statement just sent a chill down my spine. We have a duly elected president, not a dictator, at least not yet. But he sure behaves like Xi and he admires Xi and yes, makes decisions like Xi.
It makes me wonder if it's only a matter of time before we face a similar kind of crisis due to the same kind of behavior.
17
Global warming?
Mr. Kristof,
My own perception of the current coronavirus outbreak is: The outbreak emanated from a public meat market where, in parts of China, live animals were/are sold, and, probably bats were part of that market.
This type of market exists in other countries as well including India and Mexico which are democracies.
Indeed this kind of market even exists, in small enclaves in the United States, which is still widely viewed as a Democracy.
My own perception of Xi's response is that it was fairly rapid, and, fairly aggressive and much information has been communicated by his government and social media has also helped.
The origin of the coronavirus is really not President Xi.
Rather, the origin is crushing poverty brought on by overpopulation and past Chinese governance that produces crushing poverty.
Any place where overpopulation is rampant and the population is dense and very poor can produce this kind of outbreak.
To blame a single man, no matter your impression of whether he is a capable ruler or not (indeed, his country has accomplished a lot compared to the US in the last 10 years),
is really not fair or correct interpretation of an outbreak that has origins in poverty and dense population and hunger, which, is sort of a global phenomena.
2
Dear Mr Kristoff, your article is a cautionary tale. Would that our Republican Senators read it and take heed, as they vigorously attack the safeguards of democracy in our own nation, e.g. free press, balance of powers...
7
Dear Nicholas,
As a caring journalist thank you for all your information.
It is very disturbing what we are witnessing.
God Bless
6
President Trump's lawyers wouldn't have much difficulty in explaining that what Xi perceives as being in his own best interests is best for the country also. So whether it is whitewashing a viral outbreak or seeking false information on a political opponent, what is good for the fearless leader should be grand for the masses.
6
When people run for exit during false alarm of fire in a theater, accident happens. Unintended consequence is expected. Thus, government official should be very careful to declare significant virus attack in a 1.4 billion people country during the largest human migration in Lunar New Year.
And this call to alarm is not easy. It requires significant research effort to determine the cause of the disease. It could be just a normal flu in winter time. Of course, some parts of Chinese government are slow and unresponsive. But it is normal within a large government organization. Our government is no exception.
I just learned last night in NBR that we had more than 30,000 death due to flu in 2019. On contrast, China has over 100 people dead due to this contagious virus so far.
1
This article is a very strong argument for free speech and democracy. Societal threats come when least expected and no government apparatus is guaranteed to detect them in time, or provide a solution. Everyone who argues for any restriction in free speech should be required to read this.
3
You are correct in your assessment of the ineptitude and dangerousness of the top leadership in dealing with health scares like this and do not have much else to add, but I think the more immediate concerns are with the economy (assuming this current situation doesn't go beyond what most experts are seeing as manageable).
I've traveled extensively in China and speak Chinese. I've seen the signs of extremely poor mismanagement fueled by state directed debt that cannot be sustainable. Some day that will end (as all unsustainable things must so do), and that will cause pain and hardship for Chinese and the world.
1
In the US alone, 8,200 people have died so far and 140,000 people have been hospitalized of the flu during the 2019-2020 season according to preliminary estimates from the CDC. So to put this in perspective, according to the article I should be more worried about one hundred coronavirus deaths (in a country of almost 1.4 billion) than what is happening here with a population of a little more than 300 million & where we supposedly vaunt ourselves with the most modern & the best possible health care in the world?
7
@Michael Sorensen The media gets to spread disease panic, sinophobia,and Red Scare propganda all in one article. Who couldn't pass up an opportunity like this?
1
The fear and suppression of the truth and the cover-ups remind me of how Mao's Great Leap Forwards became the story of Mao's Great Famine.
4
Perhaps fair points in the early stages of the virus. But the response by ordinary Chinese people, local governments and citizen groups around the country, and where I live in Beijing has been efficient and responsible. In fact, given the daily chaos of traffic and general ignoring of regulations the response is nothing short of extraordinarily disciplined. There will be many aspects of this event to review and study, but one should be how the Chinese people, as a nation, is responding to this challenge.
19
In China, the government suppresses information.
In the US, the Republicans simply ignore it and make up their own facts.
Both attempt to censor or punish those who speak the truth.
Thew Chinese government cracks down particularly hard on those who question either its judgement or its authority.
The current, Republican US government cracks down particularly hard on those who do and report science and facts.
China has an actual dictator.
The US has a wannabe dictator.
Democracy can spread much like a virus; however, both countries are doing more to suppress democracy than the coronavirus. And both countries make relatively little effort to prevent the conditions, mostly in unsanitary places with lots of animals, that causes real viruses to mutate.
And these are two countries with among the largest economies in the world, whose leadership and cooperation are critical to minimizing climate change.
I'm not hopeful.
16
I'm not a fan of China's dictatorship for many reasons, but not this one - this conclusion really seems over the top and Kristof underestimates the challenges in dealing with an empidemic from a brand new virus.
10
Mr. Kristof says, "...let’s get over any misplaced admiration some Americans have for Xi’s authoritarian model."
Really Mr. Kristof? When was the last time you met an American who 'admired' Xi's authoritarian model?
This virus is not the result of China having an authoritarian government. The outbreak happened in China because 'live markets' are an ingrained element of the culture. China needs to ban this trade if they want to prevent the outbreaks.
Was the poisoning of Flint's water supply the result of our having a Democratic government? No, it was the result of corruption. It could have happened anywhere where corruption exists.
Was our 'Democratic' government responsible for the AIDS epidemic being ignored for so long? No, it was politicians who were derelict in their duty to protect Americans. It wasn't a failure of the Democratic system.
China is not happy about this outbreak. Many Chinese are worried for themselves and their families. I hope the outbreak ends quickly. Mr. Kristof sees the outbreak as one more opportunity to criticize the Chinese government. Yes, it's an authoritarian government. NO, the outbreak wasn't caused by authoritarianism.
23
|"Dictators often make poor decisions because they don’t get accurate information: When you squelch independent voices you end up getting just flattery and optimism from those around you. Senior Chinese officials have told me that they are routinely lied to on trips to meet local officials and must dispatch their drivers and secretaries to assess the truth and gauge the real mood."
And our U. S. president does not "squelch" the independent people around him, he totally ignores them or he abandons them and ruins their lives, sometimes permanently.
He is constantly putting our country in danger, and by his saying that the virus is completely under control, after slashing the budgets of our disease prevention and control agencies, I can count on him to endanger us further.
14
This article does not mirror the daily reports from the WHO, which emphasizes the efforts from and by the Chinese government, which are unprecedented and probably couldn't be pulled off in any other country in the world. That's not really the best way to bash China. There are plenty of other opportunities for that.
17
This article is exactly why the confrontation between China and US will be the main theme of this century.
Speaking as a chinese lived in US and currently China, I’m have seen many negative media courage of my country. By this along is quite normal as we have different ideologies and culture. It’s only natural to China-bashing. But the media and internet response towards coronavirus really is something else. To mainstream media this is simply another opportunity to slamming China and its government. And to internet it just unleashed gate of the racism and bigotry towards the Chinese. I have seen views such as virus as god-send to eliminate all dog-eating Chinese, culling of the undesirable, and other much worse sentences. I have never seen similar sentiments when a disaster reached US among Chinese internet.
As far as people here they generally very supportive of government efforts and showing incredible solidarity. And the government is indeed very focused on this issue. Tens of thousands of trucks carrying medic supplies and food into the cities that’s been quarantined. Of course those is not known in the west as this defeats the objective of bashing Chinese government. Sure government has flaws in its approach(authoritarian). But I’m pretty sure they prefer this to “thoughts and prayers”. In most the Chinese mind coronavirus is just like SARS, we defeated one, move onto the next.
To degrade a race and culture is easy. But during so you degraded yourself as well.
24
@Syd
Just how is criticizing a dictatorship unleashing "racism and bigotry". Aren't we all just a little tired of this petty trope?
2
@Syd Well said. Thank you.
A great deal of credit must be given to the scientists, from both China and the US, for the international cooperation in freely and very quickly sharing information on public databases about this virus. The complete genome was quickly sequenced and uploaded to GenBank by China. Our own CDC has likewise uploaded genomes of all US patients. They have also developed an RT-PCR assay that they are making freely available to international repositories. Behind the scenes, behind all the politics, have always been scientists who have managed to keep information like this available to anybody in the world because they know it is the right thing to do. We take this for granted today, but in the earlier days of biotech there was a movement towards privatizing sequences for profit. I doubt that many people in Washington realized what GenBank meant, and we are all better off because they didn't figure it out.
14
The US really does not know what to do about China. It is a strategic rival streaking ahead on so many fronts but fragile on so many others. Yes it is making enormous advances in infrastructure, education and science. And no, those are not all coming from "stolen" technology. (Where did they steal their lead in 5G technology from?) But at the same time China is generating all this anxiety in a US fearing it will be inevitably be displaced as world leader by this definitive "other". (God help the US once the economic cushion to print money provided by the "Petro Dollar" system is gone - and it will be.) China is at once a major strategic threat on technology, military (mostly asymmetric the Chinese will never be stupid enough or enough under the thumb of their MIC to spend like the US does on the military), and economic grounds but also very much a developing country very much divided into developmental tiers comprising hundreds of millions. Jetson's style first tier 21st Century China (Shanghai/Beijing/Tianjin etc..) often exists beside 1990s China of the 2nd tier cities and 1980s China of the rural areas. One thing though they are all moving forward. All boats are visibly floating up and spending on infrastructure/education for the general good is everywhere. Hence despite income inequality historic satisfaction with government. Let's try not to get giddy when it stumbles. It's not
a good look.
7
Mr. Kristof:
I am sensing both hypocrisy and cynicism in this column.
Hypocrisy, because the United States has faltered several times in the past in meeting public health emergencies: during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and more recently during the hurricanes that befell Puerto Rico. What was that about people who live in glass houses?
Cynicism because I think that you are trying to exploit this emergency to advance an anti-Chinese agenda. Whatever you want to say about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), there is no denying that it has unified a very fractious and divided country and has provided the discipline and focus necessary to lift 800M people out of poverty and create the largest middle class and most billionaires in the history of the world. All within the span of just over 40 years.
There may have been an initial false start, but it is clear that the Chinese government is now laser focused and determined to control this emergency. It is generally unwise to create a panic in a city the combined size of New York AND Chicago until you have a good idea of what you are up against. Required resources have been rapidly mobilized and deployed. Two 1,000 bed hospitals are being built and will be up and running within one week. Physicians, nurses and other personnel have been brought in. The US couldn’t pull that off.
Although Wuhan is under quarantine, basic necessities including food are readily available.
An authoritarian government does have certain advantages.
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Donald Trump, realizing that the 1st Amendment and the ballot box pose minimal threats to his grip on power, flaunts low employment and the Dow-Jones average as justification for his second term. In a similar manner Xi has convinced the average Chinese that according him the power to enforce whatever draconian measures are needed to stifle dissent will ensure that county maintains economic growth. Research has satisfactorily proved that no curse exists in Chinese about "living in interesting times," but the times we live in have certainly become interesting.
"It’s a credit to China’s system that a baby born in Beijing today has a longer life expectancy than a baby born in Washington, D.C. " But that Chinese baby, when he or she grows up, is likely to come to a US city like DC to have his or her baby born there and wants to never go back to Beijing. Meanwhile, I never heard about the other way around. One may wonder why?
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@Mountain dweller I am a Chinese and studied in Purdue university 18 years ago, after I got my master degree in engineering I returned to China to start my own family. The education in the US taught me about critical thinking and I cherish the two years living in the US. If you have never heard about the other way around, I would suggest you to have more travels around the country and the world. I believe you will learn many new things that are different from what you have been perceiving. Good luck.
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@Mountain dweller : I am a Brit who lived for a decade in the US and never got a green card and then left as do many foreigners who live and work in the US (at least a third, despite higher pay compared with home countries). Here in Hong Kong we have seen a lot of foreign-born or -raised Chinese moving here (although not so much now because of the illegal (anti-democratic!) rioting and vandalism (also misreported by Kristof).
I also know of non-Chinese Americans who have settled in Hong Kong and China. So no, one does not need to "wonder why". One needs to realise that one may not have a full set of information.
A government that resisted reality because there were fears for its reputation. Doctors disciplined for giving truthful warnings - I hope the world can see where this kind of thing can lead. Now we've been warned over and over again about climate change, but for similar reasons governments are ignoring those warnings.
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@J.Sutton
It's not clear that the doctors were disciplined because the leadership was resisting reality and feared a damaged reputation.
Instead, it appears that the doctors were censured for communicating in an unauthorized way while the government was already vigorously studying the situation. Of course, that's intolerable censorship and I don't want to minimize the evil.
But China mobilized far more quickly than the US did for HIV or H1N1. And we have a president who regularly bends scientific reality on behalf of his voting base. Trump admired Xi for making a Chinese "President for Life" possible and suggested we do the same. In spite of his real evil, I think I'd choose Xi over Trump in an epidemic. He's certainly a great deal more intelligent.
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It is eerie to see photographs of the now empty streets of Wuhan approximately the size of Chicago, and Beijing is also notably free of traffic.
Perhaps it is fake news, but the leader of China is apparently willing to have international relief agencies help the residents now ensconced in their homes.
Regardless of this highly contagious virus plaguing China and beyond, people remaining in these cities are in need of medical supplies, water and food.
Transportation to the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital is not enough to sustain others who are fortunate not to have succumbed to Coronavirus.
Granted it takes courage for humanitarian workers to enter these red zone urban sites, but funds are needed for The International Red Cross, UNICEF, and many other caring agencies and non-governmental organizations to be on hand with life essentials.
Remembering the elderly English teacher at our school in France, born of missionary parents in China, surely there must be beneficial ways of placing aside our differences, a moment in time, where America leads the World in caring for others trapped in these political essays.
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@Miss Ley
Wuhan is about the same population as Chicago AND New York City COMBINED. Wuhan is much larger than any single US city.
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It’s a bit funny (but not ha-ha funny) that while health authorities in the United States (e.g., CDC and state and local health agencies) say we need to stop falling for social media rumor mongering and disinformation, Mr. Kristof is saying that the average Chinese citizen’s lack of access to social media discussion of this outbreak is a sign that things are rotten there.
I work in public health information and we try as hard as we can to be first, be right, and be credible (the mantra of public health communications in times of crisis). While it’s quite possible Chinese authorities failed on the first two, thus adversely affecting the last one, the solution is for them to do better on all three, not to just toss everything to the winds of social media.
And while we’re pointing fingers at governments over this crisis, let’s not forget that our own government, in the first three years of this administration, has sought to slash CDC’s budget for overseas disease surveillance, a course of action that is mind-bogglingly ignorant and short-sighted.
Imagine how much better off we’d be if Chinese authorities had had a robust relationship with CDC professionals in China to help them out, from the get-go. This failure is on us.
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@Nate Hilts Even if CDC budget is not slashed and Chinese has robust relationship with US CDC professionals, it would still not likely be useful. China will still be china, i.e. not losing face.
@Paul, you are wrong on both counts. China is interested in saving face, but they’re also keenly aware that going too far with that in cases of outbreaks will cause a loss of face (e.g., SARS).
The CDC (and WHO) routinely having boots on the ground in provincial China would have led to conversations and confidence about how to move forward publicly when this novel virus and its outbreak were first discovered. It might even have provided a conduit for a more rapid confirmation that they were dealing with a novel coronavirus.
China will be China, but CDC will be CDC.
"And act decisively they did — not against the virus, but against whistle-blowers who were trying to call attention to the public health threat"
I cannot agree more, the Chinese officials have not moved fast enough to contain this epidemic.
This illness has already spread all over China including Tibet, killing more than 130 people, that is the Chinese official count but you cannot trust the transparency of the Chinese government in this matter, the actual death count could be much more than that.
At this point, a quarantine in Wuhan is not enough to stop the spread of the coronavirus in China.
A scientific assessment of the spread of the disease, assuming an optimistic 90 percent quarantine, still predicted more than 59,000 infections and 1,500 deaths — twice the toll of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak.
China’s health minister said the coronavirus is increasing in virulence and now could be contagious even before people exhibit symptoms, making apparently healthy people possible carriers.
This illness is a tragedy for China and the rest of the world. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine to prevent this illness and it will take more than a year to develop a vaccine by then who knows how many more people will die.
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@Padman Thanks for reading my column. I do think that China, having bungled things at first, is now doing a better job. But the instinct of cracking down on information -- of sending the police after front line doctors, rather than listening to them -- continues. If this gets to the camps in Xinjiang, heaven help us.
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@Nicholas Kristof
Xinjiang isn't a major manufacturer or tourist center. An epidemic amongst the Muslim population there wouldn't have the economic impact it has in Wuhan, a major transportation manufacturing hub.
In addition, an epidemic would have deal with western China's Muslim problem, perhaps more effectively than imprisonment.
Finally, if Westerners clear out of China, who is left to report on the Uighurs' plight?
A cynical view, yes indeed, but it can be argued that this scenario would be in line with the central PRC policies.
@Padman...
This article tends to reinforce my perspective that President Reagan was largely responsible, through early inaction and passivity, for the on-set of the AIDS epidemic in America.
How many years was it the he refused to even publicly mention the disease which was killing so many?
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This is not what I was seeing . The details were known in December and there was a lot of research done at the time as scientists tried to understand wat was happening. Its easy to blame China for this but the reality is it is doing a phenomenal job right now to contain it at a massive cost. I doubt whether if this had happened in the US things would have been any different.
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Too late or that now.. some 25-30 years ago would have been a better time to stop this nonsense called "globalization" with China at the forefront. The greedy West and its tightfisted consumers are to blame and are responsible for China's rise to power..more profits to be made by dealing with china and shipping our jobs there, and more money saved for our cheap consumers.. those Dollar Store and Walmart shoppers, have no selfrespect or respect for own own country. So Mr.K nice article and as usual a little too late.. try 25 years too late. We needed Clinton back in 1994 to do what Trump has done in 2020 but even he has gone far enough.
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@lou andrews
The "greedy west" is the 1% owners who redirected their business offshore to "show" the American worker that there would be no benefits and no unions. The American consumer is NOT the major problem.
And no, it is not too late. The billionaires can start paying reasonable wages and raise the standard of living for hundreds of millions.
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This seems a little hyperbolic to me.
This is a very serious situation, but not to the point of hysteria.
China cannot continue to not regulate wet markets given their impact on the globe, that is for certain.
That said, the World, and especially the USA based multi-national corporation, has definitely benefited, economically, from China's dictatorship.
So much so, in fact, that we are institutionalizing a dictatorship in this nation as I write this.
Pandemics are no match for avarice.
This will not be a disaster wasted by the business class.
MB
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A century ago the Spanish flu infected 500 million people (about a quarter of the world's population at that time) with a death toll that might have been as high as 100 million. What if this coronavirus has the capability of inflicting such a global toll? It should be considered a crime against humanity to have withheld vital information about it for so long.
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@Blue Moon 170 people have died of the coronavirus so far since 2 months ago when the virus was discovered. At least 8200 died of flu in the US this flu season, a little more information will help you to make your judgement:
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/longevity/480089-coronavirus-sparks-panic-as-flu-poses-greater-threat-to
The west's response has been little better. There is only one way to contain this and it is through quarantine. A health check should be mandatory for those coming to the west. And for those coming from China a two week quarantine for those failing the test.
Quarantine worked throughout history. We need to overcome the absurd PC objections to it, and do it again. Problems solved.
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I cannot say for sure whether Xi used his tight rule to control information of an epidemic. Thats is just a wild speculation. I don't think there was sufficient information to control. That and Coronavirus spread faster than anticipated. Whats important now is that China is doing everything to control the spread and has also invited International experts to contribute their expertise to stem the tide of the spread of this deadly virus which is just now being characterized and understood.
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We have now entered to age of world-level threats, without recourse to powerful and effective world-level coordination and governance (WHO is the most effective part of UN, and even it has no power over sovereign states). So we have lived with the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation, and now face disasters from climate change, just as ill-prepared.
But with the density of humans in our largest cities worldwide, and the prevelant unsanitary conditions and practices spawned by economic or other constraints, the introduction of a deadly superbug that can evolve faster than we can tame it may indeed be the way civilization as we know it may end. An epidemic is a world-wide threat, and we need powerful world-level organizations to deal with them. In this context, powerful, authoritarian regimes are an impediment to making progress on global issues.
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@PT : I would point out that there is NO WAY the U.S. would be able to quarantine a city of 11 million people. I for one am very glad this is happening in China. They can deal with the problem in a way that we never could.
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@PT
Agreed. And yet another example of why isolationism is not a viable option.
This feels like a fairly simplistic analysis of China's response, a smug comparison where democracy always appears to win.
If we had a similar virus that originated in NYC, what makes anyone think that the President--any President--would shut down the city like the Chinese have done? More than 50 million people under quarantine? It's impossible to even imagine, outside of massive fatalities, not simply hundreds. One could more easily make the argument that the Chinese, after a slow start, have been extremely decisive, in a way that would be almost impossible here.
The American political leadership would face the fury of every business group that stood to suffer by a mass shutdown of cities. I suspect the first thing any leadership here would be thinking is: what happens to the stock market if we project fear? What happens to business confidence? I'm certainly no fan of the Chinese dictatorship, but let's not kid ourselves about the superiority of our system. In the case of another existential threat, the lords of business here have been extraordinarily effective in making sure that we don't combat climate change if it hurts the bottom line. Precaution is not a word in their lexicon.
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@blackerman and who would pay for the medical bill afterwards? If people don't have adequate insurance would they lose their homes, if they had one to lose?
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@susan government has said it would pay for the medical bills
Dear Mr. Kristof, You generally are very careful with what you say and thus what you say is usually true, but it is absolutely inaccurate for you to say "China's economy is now as weak as it has been in 3 decades".
I mean are you really saying that China's current economy is not better than the 1990s? Maybe you are confusing the growth rate on the wealth instead of the wealth? In any case, there is no doubt that per capita, the Chinese are much much better off now than they were 30 years ago, even if growth is now lower.
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@Danny Boy
In fact, when you consider China's growth as a portion of global growth, 2019 is the highest point China ever reached, accounting for 32.7%. That China's nominal growth rate slowed is due to both China's now massive economy and a global slowdown that affected every economy on Earth.
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@Danny Boy Yes, I mean that the GDP growth rate is as weak as it has been in three decades.
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@Nicholas Kristof My goodness - China's GDP growth rate is estimated to be 7% (World Bank) this year and has sustained or increased that rate of the past 30 years. In 1989 the rate was 3%. 3 decades of growth rates between 6 and 12% hardly merits Mr. Kristof's statement "yet China’s economy is now as weak as it has been in three decades." The U.S. economy never reached 5% growth rate over the same period. Mr Kristof's critique of China's social contract implies, I suppose, that the U.S. promises both the ballot and steadily better lives - how questionable does that claim seem today?
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Having received letters from Chinese friends on the mainland I can say they are scared. But I have not heard them complain about the government's handling of this crisis.
It seems like many in the media will take every opportunity to criticize China's dictatorship. I would just say that China is not an easy country to govern.
Years ago, the government decided to do away with the customary two-hour lunch. The government thought they could dramatically increase productivity without this long lunch period which many Chinese use to nap.
The response from the people in this country we always hear as a brutal dictatorship was immediate and decisive--strikes across the nation from students to farmers tying up traffic in the big cities with their tractors. The government backed off that idea, quickly and never brought it up again.
Once in a while, it would be gratifying to hear, especially from a responsible and wise columnist like Mr Kristof, some words of support and wishes for a quick solution that protects us all.
I know, and I believe Mr Kristof knows also, kind words of support from the West would be much appreciated and long remembered in China.
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Despite our monkey curiosity and inventiveness, our inability to prioritize our group survival over our individual aggrandizement--something that one would suspect an existentially conscious species could do--makes it more and more likely that homo sapiens is an evolutionary dead end.
Perhaps something just as intelligent but more altruistic will eventually evolve to inhabit the planet, assuming that we haven't poisoned or heated it sufficiently to preclude that.
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When the rest of us pay the price for serious mistakes like the ones you describe, economists describe it as “internalizing the externality.” There is a cost to me — as remote as I am to the real danger. If it becomes a pandemic that could have been stopped, people will look back on what you have reported as a very good first draft of history. We are likely to see more such mistakes and will be required to absorb their costs. Sadly, things are going to have to get worse before they get our attention in the many ways required to produce change.
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Seems like absolute power has gone to Xi Jp’s head. Now a dose of coronavirus has made a communist state literally paranoid of its citizens. And before it gets much worse than this, I hope dictators realize that only openness, accountability and cooperation can save man from himself.
Meanwhile, if China prides itself to be technologically advanced, it should focus its resources to saving people, not suppressing them.
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@iphigene : Once this virus subsides, you really should travel to China. You will be very surprised at what you see.
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Another incisive analysis from Mr. Kristof.
This all rings true, and echoes and re-echoes.
But, does America, and what we once called the "free world," or whatever is left of it, have a viable strategy for containing, pressing back and clearly demonstrating a better way?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and even relative absolute power corrupts at least relatively, but a strategy counting on such corruption to trip itself up or stumble, or backfire more than it fires, is unwise and imprudent, to say the least.
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Xi should look up to Deng Xiaoping, who had lots of lessons on humbleness and humility along with his survival at the Cultural Revolution in China. When he finally supplanted that madness he became the leader that reoriented China to its present economic powerhouse situation. However, living and surviving to learn is quite different from living to grab power, a lesson that many a leader in the world should pay attention to in the East and in the West.
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@Ademario
Careful about resurrecting Deng as an admirable role model for anyone.
While I agree Deng Xiaoping did open up China to the world and is responsible for their economic turnaround, he was also responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocent Chinese citizens at Tiananmen square on 6/4/89.
Neither Deng or Xi is a study in humility - they are both brutal dictators who will do anything to preserve their hold on power, including locking up millions (Xi) or killing their own citizens (both).
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