The most terrible enemy in the 21st century is the Beijing administration, which is dominated by the Chinese Communist Party. Not China, not Chinese.
8
These comments are absolutely atrocious. What is going on with NYT readers?
You can’t be arrested in America for saying “hey guys there is a dangerous virus spreading”. I thought that was what this article is about
5
Is there a government anywhere that would shine in the face of such an epidemics’ development?
I live in Hunan providence one division down from Hubei and under similar levels of restriction and see the type of commentary mentioned alive on wife’s I phone and follow with a VPN the NYTimes coverage. People are frightened reactions expected; but the important ones are within the CCP.
To see the Big Picture as to what might politically follow an Australian Sino specialist Richard McGregor in Xi Jinping: The Backlash argues how XI ‘has left himself with a perilously narrow off-ramp from office due to his aggressive anti-corruption campaign: “Pull down one person and you destroy hundreds if not thousands of people along with them.”
Those forces will play themselves out in coming time, but Xi’s performance may read well as the Covid-19 dwindles back to SARS levels – popular discontent of little consequence.
Interesting times.
No one would have cared had the corona virus been contained. Once it goes beyond the border, people notice
It’s still too early to tell whether China’s Communist Party under Xi’s leadership is losing its grip on power. It is censoring the Coronavirus coverage, because the widespread outrage among concerned citizens over the regime’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 outbreak is a thorn in the side of the repressive state apparatus.
Now it hopes that the virus can be contained so that the country can get back to business as usual, and that the popular discontent will subside.
At least the Chinese propaganda machine has been less malign as the Russian. While the Communist Party offers coverage of patriotic citizens donating their life savings and other courageous acts, the Russian-linked accounts post rumours online in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French , alleging, for example, that the virus was forged in a US lab to be unleashed on the Chinese population. Bill Gates and George Soros, in some tellings, were in on the plot.
14
Think the one bit about Dr. Li Wenliang's passing made people especially the younger generation realize the value of free expression is overly....optimistic. The reason most people got angry and upset was simple that Dr. Li's message somehow happened to be correct, and they thought if he was not silenced and the state media didn't opt to convey an alternative message, they wouldn't be in this mess, personally - In other words, they didn't recognize that, even if Dr. Li's message was wrong, he shouldn't be reprimanded by the police just because he said something wrong or unpopular. They still think that the government has the right to determine which speech is considered a "rumor" or otherwise not allowed, criminally. Many in the younger generation have a habit of hitting the "report" button whenever they see something they don't like, be it about a celebrity they adore or a statement they think is insulting to the people, the country, etc. Unfortunately, I don't think Dr. Li's passing is changing this habit.
2
Any country would struggle with this new virus. The propaganda examples in the article are absurd, but the propaganda does not seem to be making the outbreak worse. And when the Chinese people see how other countries fare with this new virus, they will not be as bothered by their own countries struggles. Japan had issues, not propaganda ones, but logistics after its nuclear plant flooded, and the US certainly had huge difficulties with helping our people hurricanes Katrina in the southeast , and Sandy in the Northeast.
The authoritarian system creates problems, but better to look at those that stem from its weaknesses. The problems with the virus are those that many governments would, and likely will, face.
5
How could doctors and citizens get more than 20 million masks a day in their holiday?
The fact is all governments lie. The US government lied during wars in Vietnam and Middle East. Tom Cotton made conspiracy claims on the origin of covid 19 that were totally unfounded.
This epidemic would have been much much worse had the Chinese did not took the drastic step to lock down Wuhan. The world should be grateful for it.
Chinese people are smart. They deserve support from the media around the world. Instead we keep getting one sided reporting to satisfy the thirst to seeing the Chinese government to fail. These China bashers will be disappointed.
12
The response to the COVID-19 virus really makes clear the pros and cons of an authoritarian versus a democratic society.
China is more successful when consensus gets in the way and less successful when consensus is necessary. The US struggles to do big initiatives quickly because every voice must be heard, but it does well when it needs many people working separately to get something done.
So, the Chinese can do things like building multiple new hospitals within two weeks, but it can’t get people quickly helping each other across the country because all decisions must come from the top.
The US can get a quick response from community organizations working independently at the grassroots level, but it takes forever to do big new infrastructure projects because it needs to listen to many stakeholders.
The Chinese can shut down absurd Fake News and ruinous gossip while the Americans get inundated with lies, scams, and harassment.
No government system and no society is perfect. China’s over control causes many problems. The USA’s worship of profit over all other values causes a different set of problems.
Frankly, I’d rather we focused on coming together to do our best to prepare to handle this new illness rather than wasting time gloating about China’s shortcomings.
13
@Heather
As I look out my window here in Chengbu I watch a monitor with a red armband, one of many, walking about in the neighborhood. He is a member of a community action committee set up to encourage people to remain home and limit shopping during the epidemic – a throwback to the Cultural Revolution – not really.
But the symbol lives on. China is a concept the media loves to bang on and objective coverage rare. Your comment appreciated by another Californian.
1
Does this story remind you of similar government PR in other countries？The Chinese regime can only blame themselves, but the rest of us should keep an eye on our own government as well. The world is full of heartless and greedy politicians. We need more concerned citizens to make sure no politicians can take our future away. Power to the people！
8
Is China loosening travel restrictions and sending workers back to work too early?
If so, we will see a huge second wave of COVID-19 cases.
1
I wish it would weaken ours. Just heard Trump spinning silk out of the Coronavirus.
This should be no surprise, it is a communist country, where the leaders are the only ones living a life of freedom. For everyone else, for in-line or else!
1
@The Fig
The Times has trouble with this one but the World Bank ranks the PRC 4 Trillion dollars larger than the second ranked USA see: World Bank: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.PP.KD
Not a bad showing when you think about it.
Ha, a journalist with a Chinese name! Thus this report has zero credit! I would like to call these Chinese-American journalists “China haters”. They hate everything, everyone from China, not only the government, but also the people there. Sometimes when I read their reports, I found the China I used to live in is totally different from what they report.
10
@Wang
Have the noticed the recent restaffing of Times Asian Pacific coverage.
The onjectine 'Jane (?)' is gone.
I cannot agree more. She reported "truth", but just all the bad "truth", and left out anything good about China. And I just realized NYT itself sensors comments. LOL.
@wsmrer
'Objestive' and I do miss her.
Maybe,.....just maybe, there is a silver lining in this pandemic monstrosity from China.
Maybe, the mainland Han Chinese who showed so little compassion for their XinJiang Uyghur Muslims they were separated from families and herded into detention centers, and forced to undergo “training” in Chinese “vocational training prisons”, might just begin to understand what its like to live in a lockdown and have all your freedom and rights stripped away.
Ahh....but then again, I’m just being too optimistic. China and its CCP will never change - its all about controlling the masses.
3
My, my, you have awakened a sleeping giant. Criticizing the communist party has made the whisperers and spies crawl out from their hiding places.
3
Viruses don't respond to propaganda.
4
And I wonder if Trump's propaganda machine is up to the coronavirus.
5
Maybe they should take some lessons from Fox.
3
Don't be quick to dismiss the power of China's propaganda machine. It's greatest victory is the co-opting of the WHO, which has now turned into an unofficial propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party. Dr. Bruce Aylward yesterday at a long press conference said of China, "The world is in your debt." Really? This is the same autocratic regime that lied about the infections, delayed informing the WHO, demanded that the naming have nothing to do with China or Wuhan and continues to block Taiwan from even participating in the WHO? This is the country the world is in debt to? Reports continue to leak out of Wuhan that the supposed decrease in the number of reported cases is the result of hospitals underreporting cases. Yet, still supplicants of China, at the WHO, call on other countries to mimic the methods employed in the autocracy. It will take more than a pandemic to change things in China, and I don't know what will change things outside of China where the government still wields considerable clout.
16
This is reminiscent of that Yang hit piece in the NYT. Remember that one? A couple of former employees did not love the guy so maybe he isn't that great after all. China is facing a tremendous crisis and has pulled out all the stops in her response. And in doing so, she has bought everyone time. It is unfortunate, but there is no way that everyone can feel seen, heard and cared for in a time like this. But the truly heroic response of China's healthcare workers, the populace's acceptance of extreme sacrifice in service of containing this threat, in service of the common good, this is what it means to be human. This is the real story of this epidemic.
13
@Pigsy China is a secretive, closed, Communist state. Its citizens have been brain washed for decades. Individual thought is discouraged and the media pumps out lies day after day. The people have no chance of rising up to overthrow the government. China is a menace to the world, and certainly is no friend to America. Trump is easily being hoodwinked by the leadership in China and thinks that the two countries can be friendly. He is sooooo wrong!
3
On numerous occasions the World Health Organization has praised the sometimes extreme measures China has taken to prevent the spread. The WHO stated the approach “changed the course of the virus,” adding that the rest of the world should learn from China’s experience. This article portrays a horrific dystopian nightmare.
8
@Pete This is an epidemic with potentially catastrophic consequences. It is not best met by people hugging and singing kumbaya. Yes, not everyone is going to feel heard, seen and cared for. Get over it.
3
@Pete For years now, the WHO is in China's pocket. Same goes for the IOC and the ICAO.
Western reporters look at events in China through a lens of western democracy, where leaders have to bend to public opinion. It doesn't work that way in police states like China. Re-reading the novel 1984 might prepare them to better understand the situation there.
15
For 2200 years, Chinese officials have been responsible for disseminating 'propaganda,' xuānchuán, transforming the people through honorable behavior and instruction–and lectured on the Emperor’s Sacred Maxims and exemplifying them in daily life.
At the practical level, we could call xuānchuán 'best practices' as applied to agriculture, business, and even Coronavirus safety measures
At the social level, the Sacred Maxims include propaganda like "Free yourself from enmity and anger to show respect for your body and life."
At the political level, xuānchuán includes advice in Mao's famous Little Red Book like, "It is necessary to criticize people's shortcomings but, in doing so, we must truly take the stand of the people and speak out of wholehearted eagerness to protect and educate them. To treat comrades like enemies is to take the stance of the enemy."
Western propaganda has a deservedly bad reputation. Chinese, not so much..
3
We will have our chance to show our own brilliance against the coronavirus. Much sooner that we think we will.
13
No matter where you are or what you believe, reality always wins even if it might take a while.
Really, after Galileo, now 400 years later, why are humans (eg, Republicans and especially people like Trump) still so insistent in trying to deny what is factually objective?
6
Look no further than China for a glimpse of our dystopian future...with the exception that our future will be ruled by the Russian mob.
8
@Truie Your statement makes no sense. 'Russian Mob?!?!?' I support Pete B. For POTUS; however, think is irrational Trump slandering at it's finest.
"Exhausted medical workers with faces lined from hours of wearing goggles and surgical masks. Women with shaved heads, a gesture of devotion. Retirees who donate their life savings anonymously in government offices...."
All these are heroes and the Chinese people know that and I am thankful to these heroes and to all the Chinese people for the heroism being shown.
This article is shameful.
28
@Nancy I agree with you about Chinese heroism. Therefore, let us protect rather than sacrifice these heroes to a repressive state. For one thing, due to Xi Jinping's decision not to disclose the epidemic to the public in order to make things look happy and cozy during Chinese holidays, thousands of these heroes got infected. Due to the corruption of government officials, who had donated protective suits, masks and other supplies confiscated, these heroes died. One 29-year-old nurse, for example, infected her parents and younger brother. All four perished last week. Many stories of entire families wiped out are circulated on the Internet, then deleted by the censors.
It is because Chinese journalists are gagged and cannot write stories like this article that these heroes and innocents have died. The only shameful party in this situation is the CCP. Moreover, they are still lying about the number of new infections. By reporting the truth, NYT is protecting the Chinese people and the rest of the world.
2
@Riotous Joy the media in China work a bit differently, but that does not mean Chinese people don't know these stuff. All of the events this text covers are available through Chinese social media platforms and the general mass of public have known all of these events.
2
I don't see this type of news has string right cord always.
In this particular subject Coronavirus , what USA is offering its own citizens.
Our healthcare system .
oh great..
8
Honestly they’re no different than the MSM here. Ours is little more subtle, but it try’s to shape public opinion politically to one side & create false narratives. Ours often blows things out of proportion or present false facts with no vetting. Truly unbiased journalism is extinct.
11
Nelson from The Simpsons: HA HAA
“Many”? How many people did you ask? China has 1.4 billion people and the young people I know was not like what you said. I wonder have this reports that write news about China actually been in China? This question was with me for really long time. Because I heard so many news about the policy,security ext that even I sometimes believe that but when I went back, none of them are truth. (Now I seriously question the western news about other countries.) So, did these report make a life by criticizing China? Then you must thanks China for that ,because without it, how you gonna make money?
Think about that Mrs.li, you can’t help people in China to make money, or battle the virus. You can’t remove the government even though you hate it. Now you news are fake, you can’t even win in propagandas anymore.
13
@Tianyue The journalist was from Ningxia, and even worked for Xinhua She, but she moved to HK. We could probably imagine why. LOL
1
"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." — George Orwell, “1984”
14
Please stop politicizing a virus! It is outrageous.
No one mention the fact that on February 24, 2020, National People's Congress in China made an announcement: not only wild animals living in the wild are out of limit for consumption, but all wild animals that are artificially bred and farmed/raised are also out of limit for consumption going forward. It is disturbing for Americans with Chinese heritage to face endless discrimination and belittling already. It is a virus, please stop trying to politicizing it and make it even worst for everyone. Does anyone actually care about all these people living in China! I didn't feel a shred of sympathy in the media towards these people while all of you are benefiting from their hard work. Look at the shoes you are wearing! Check your phone and everything in your house! They are made in China. Yes, people work hard there to make those things so that you can afford so many. They are now suffering from a virus, let's throw more rocks on them!
It is sickening now that one need to worry about being labelled as part of the propaganda machine from China in order to speak up. To politicizing a virus, it is going too far!
25
@Wei
I think that Chinese society working together with the government on curbing the virus is entitled to ask the very government for full freedom of speech. People of China deserve, after following strict regimen to contain the virus, openness from the ruling party. They can demand from the government that tried to hide the epidemic crisis in December, that freedom of speech in no negotiable any more in China. This is a "Tiananmen Square" moment (one of the tests is to demand that discussing Tiananmen Square massacre will be allowed, without censorship and punishment) - this epidemic is a rare opportunity for People of China to force the government to become more open, with a benefit to both people of China and the Chinese government.
Otherwise, what is your point?
5
@Wei I believe this relentless "kick them when they are down" -- even when they are facing a health crisis continues us down the road of demonizing China and will eventually lead to armed conflict. China has a LOT of faults but also many wonderful sides. I have spent decades in mainland China & in my humble opinion we need to show some more caring & empathy.
4
@Wei remember when this stuff was made Japan. And it was a joke then. Not so much now. But still.
I see the China apologists are out in full force. Apologists are apologists...whether making excuses for China, Trump, Bloomberg, whomever/whatever. SO much hypocrisy out there.
15
@Truie China's army of trolls, the wumao, is a real thing. It consists mostly of students outside China, easily identified by their bad command of English.
1
@Truie You got to look past the Chinese ones. They are getting paid by the CCP. You can find some real Chinese opinion here (in Chinese):
pincong.rocks
These folks have to tunnel the Great Firewall to post their opinion freely. They started reporting on the virus in early January, weeks before the government's admission. I am Chinese-American myself. I thank God for the US and its freedom every day, and the Chinese on Pincong feel the same way.
2
@Truie What is your point? You didn't say anything of substance.
There's plenty of propaganda alright. But it not coming from China. It's coming from New York.
13
That old chestnut; Fake news.
4
Does NYT know how to "give it rest" for once? Discredit discredit discredit the Chinese Communist regime. News flash NYT, pandemics are more than about politics and ideologues.
9
Please stop politicizing a virus! It is outrageous.
It is distrubing to read always negative news coverage about China, regarding every aspect of everything, but no one seems to give a damn about the fact that on February 24, 2020, National People's Congress in China made an announcement: not only wild animals living in the wild are out of limit for consumption, but all wild animals that are artificially bred and farmed/raised are also out of limit for consumption going forward. I actually think China is not doing enough to have her voice heard in America. It is disturbing for Americans with Chinese heritage to face endless discrimination and belittling already. It is a virus, please stop trying to politicizing it and make it even worst for everyone. Does anyone actually care about all these people living in China! I didn't feel a shred of emphathy in the media towards these people while all of you are benefiting from these people's hard work. Look at the shoes you are wearing! Check your phone and everything in your house! They are made in China. Yes, people work hard there to make those things so that you can afford so many. They are now suffering from a virus, let's throw more rocks on them!
9
@Wei
you can also see that the level of spread of he virus can be blamed on the lost first month when the Chinese government tried to conceal that there was ever a problem. If the world new, the spread could be curbed much faster. Now with have it in Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, Spain, etc. etc... So this is not only "they" who are suffering - this is all of us being potentially directly affected.
4
@Ellen That was just a city's government. It is not the whole Chinese government. The Japanese government is doing the exact same thing right now.
1
@Wei
You might enjoy reading The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee.
It’s an old story retold.
The NYT spends an awful lot of time slagging China. Here we have a country that is suffering and the only thing we get is the bad stuff.
But name one other country that could mobilize such tremendous resources in such a short time? In fact, China has the best emergency management system in the world. Yes, some idiot cops sequestered and warned Dr Li WenLiang, but guess what he did? He threw his own gauntlet down again and went back to work and die from the COVID-19 he warned about. But we haven't heard about the chief medical officer of a Wuhan hospital. Liu Zhiming, who went to the front lines and he too lost his life to the disease. Over 100 health care workers have died.
When an American solider throws herself on a hand grenade to save the other soldiers, she is cited as a hero. So why the double-standard in the NYT at a time when China is suffering?
Instead of 100% castigation, how about the helping hand of a Good Samaritan and the quality of mercy?
24
@Svirchev
not only China has been suffering, the epidemic has started spreading globally. We all wish that Chinese government was more open when it started in China in December. The world lost one crucial month to implement due intervention and protection.
3
@Ellen Not December, but November 2019.
1
@Ellen because the local government did not expect that this could be so disastrous.....
1
The Chinese students in my human rights law class (I suspect some of whom were associated with the CCP) were very quick to dismiss civil and political rights as “western values.” Liberty and individualism, they argued were over-rated and not part of “Asian values.” I must say I found a certain hypocrisy in their arguments given that they were sitting and engaging in free debate in Australia, a western liberal-democracy (albeit less protective of freedom of expression than say, the US). But, it did leave me wondering if Western hopes that totalitarianism would crumble in China were realistic. Maybe the Chinese simply liked to live in a police state. The recent protests in Hong Kong and the emergence of dissent (despite mass censorship) in the wake of the Coronavirus has suggested to me that it may not be so simple. Maybe the Chinese aren’t so different to us, maybe they really do want freedom, they just aren’t allowed to have it. That said, I agree with NYT commentators that how well the West responds to the Coronavirus remains to be seen.
21
@Kay
"were very quick to dismiss civil and political rights as “western values.” Liberty and individualism, they argued were over-rated and not part of “Asian values.”
This is called homo sovieticus syndrome. These are not "Asian values" only decades of brainwashing with totalitarian propaganda.
1
@Kay Maybe the Chinese simply liked to live in a police state? If it's police states you're interested in, consider a country that practices
• warrantless surveillance of private phone and email conversations.
• SWAT teams raiding homes;
• thousands of shootings of unarmed citizens by police
• harsh punishment of schoolchildren in the name of zero tolerance
• endless unpopular wars
• secret bans on 50,000 people from flying and refusing explanations
• imprisoning 2,000,000 people witout trial
• executing 2,000 people each year prior to arrest.
• out-of-control government spending with little benefit to citizens
• heavily armed, militarized police;
• roadside strip searches;
• roving border sweeps that imprison citizens and non-citizens
• privatized prisons with a profit incentive for jailing citizens;
• fusion centers that collect and disseminate data on citizens’ private transactions
• militarized agencies with stockpiles of ammunition
The Chinese government does few of these things, its police are unarmed, its legal system is highly trusted, and its government’s policies are very popular.
The US does all of them. Often.
3
@Godfree Roberts
"its legal system is highly trusted" hmmm...
Why don't we start with asking why Chinese government is censoring any information related to Tiananmen Square massacre? What the government is afraid of.
1
It is interesting to see China and the US as being mirror images of each other, each side frantically preaching to its own citizens how superior their own system is better than the other by resorting to fact distortion. I really don't see any difference in the propaganda machines between these two countries. In the example of New York Times, when I see a positive word in its reporting on China, I have the tendency of going outside to see if the sun had risen from the west that morning.
27
Dear @american expat as a Canadian who worked in China for 10 years, there is a huge difference between US and Chinese propaganda machines. In China, if you disagree with state propaganda, you can get arrested.
14
@american expat - - - So, with the two countries reacting the same, you also expect to see Washington, D.C. ordering entire ciites like L.A. shut down and sick citizens trucked away to treatment centers/death camps out in the desert as the primary method of fighting the disease?
Yeah, your Mr. Trudeau Jr. is the perfect man to have at he helm should Montreal wake up with hospitals full of virus victims tomorrow.
4
@american expat Utterly nonsensical comparison and a false equivalence. Chinese news media are directly controlled and censored by the government. US media outlets have independent ownership, editorial independence and protection under the First Amendment. Not all of the NYT’s reporting about China is negative, and if you want to insinuate bias on its part, then provide evidence other than the fact that you just don’t like what is being reported. Take your whataboutism to the People’s Daily, where I’m sure it’ll find a welcoming audience.
11
No one and not one media in America offer any support and help to the 70,000 Chinese people who are trapped and sick in dire need of medical, and financial support. Not one organized effort in fund raising or in helping them to procure mask and other equipments. This is chilling. Instead of doing that, we use their demise to fulfill agendas, politically or not. We should be ashamed as a long term trade partner no matter what is your political ideology.
25
@Wei Given the positive point-of-view in the Chinese government controlled media, it is unclear that the Chinese government would accept help, as that would contradict the positive image they are trying to project. Also, the USA probably does not have enough masks, etc., to handle its own likely widespread epidemic.
7
@Wei there quite a few chinatowns in the USA. Seems they are on the frontlines in helping out in this matter. I hope. I guess. But then Again - It, fundraising, could start with Y. O. U.
Thanks.
8
Here’s a novel idea: How about the Chinese media and Chinese government provide that help and support instead of them wasting time, money and energy on propaganda?
8
Perhaps the Covid-19 epidemic and foremost the initial denial of the Chinese authorities will work out similarly as the melt-down of the Chernobyl reactors in 1986.
No regime can turn a blind eye to disasters and maintain credibility.
Which Beijing apparatchik will be stepping up to proclaim гласность? Glasnost as Gorbachev advocated 34 year ago, finally leading to the implosion of the Soviet Union.
This is by the way something we in the West tend to ignore: it was denial up to the highest level that led to the downfall of the Soviet socialist dream, more than a victory of capitalism as an ideology.
Benchmark the word glasnost or openness, esp. before Nov-20.
4
@Flip
While we wait for Beijing apparatchik to implode, what 70years and counting, United States has already imploded 2009 and is on cusp of another implosion politically as election kicks in.
2
Sounds like the new generation of Chinese citizens have different ideas about how their government should be responding. Perhaps they can be a force for change in the future. Certainly the government has totally mishandled this crisis, but on our side of the globe how confident can we be that the Trump administration would do any better given their disdain for science? Heck we have got Medal of Freedom winner Rush Limbaugh laughing off this epidemic as nothing more serious than a common cold!
Let us hope that our scientists can find a way to handle this serious disease so that it harms less people. Hopefully they can develop a vaccine that will put the brakes on it.
5
Wow! Impressed by young, independent thinkers. Having lived in China twice, I know of Communist Party sheepherder's
mentality -- pacify with improved standard of living. But this only goes so far. Higher income, better educated. Thus, thinking less like sheep and more like human beings, deserving of respect and dignity. NOT good for the Party.
14
Since Trump acts like Xi we are not any better. Authoritarians are not sufficiently intelligent to micromanage, and are subject to gross error based on ignorance and hubris.
Why DID Trump fire our pandemic response team?
3
"Coronavirus Weakens China’s Powerful Propaganda Machine" and it will do the same to ours.
7
The ugliest propaganda lie is that the corona virus came out of nowhere, an unpreventable fatality. We should have enough honesty to acknowledge that this virus naturally lives in covets and bats, far from humans. Maybe other wild animals are involved in the animal-human transmission chain. This pandemic can only be attributed to despicable chinese eating habits and filthy meat markets. Lets stop lying to protect the chinese society as a whole from this enormous responsibility. Conventional public hygiene measures are unquestioned. But China has been recklessly provoking pandemics since the SARS outbreak, in 18 years they have done nothing to protect us from these viruses. Is the world really the hostage of chinese food habits that don't respect wildlife nor animal dignity ? Lets openly talk and then change this, I am not ready to die for a grilled civet or a bat soup. Lets stop this farce. Risk my life working in Wuhan ? No. China deserves our empathy only after they fix this terrible mess.
22
And let’s not forget that it is swine flu that has devastated their pork industry (because of the necessary culling) driving up the price of pork forcing some of the poor/starving to eat “bush meat.”
3
Bat and civet tastes like somewhere between bald eagle and California condor.
2
Want a preview of the Trump response to a Pandemic? See Puerto Rico- Paper Towels for everyone.
Seriously.
12
In addition to propaganda, the Chinese government puts out completely UNreliable virus figures.
Hard to trust anything coming out of China.
16
@Janak More like NEVER trust any figures coming from China.
When a government is faced with a totally unknown highly contagious disease that is spreading very quickly among ten of missions of people in such a vast country, what should they do ?
Concerned with being blamed for "not transplant", "fake news", "brainwashing machine", "a whole month of inaction" .....?
They were probably overwhelmed with the task on hand. Not worry about other people criticism.
4
Neither might be Trump’s.
Thank you, China:
https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-02-26/-Copy-China-s-response-to-COVID-19-WHO-expert-urges--OnNfwORI3u/index.html
February 26, 2020
'Copy China's response to COVID-19,' WHO expert urges rest of the world
By Daniel Harries
Countries around the world need to follow China's example when fighting and preparing for COVID-19, a top World Health Organization (WHO) expert said on Tuesday upon returning from the epicenter of the outbreak.
Describing the response as "striking," Bruce Aylward, head of the joint WHO-China mission, said: "In 30 years of doing this business, I've not seen this before, nor was I sure it would work." ...
7
I love articles in western media that criticize the chinese government for propaganda and lies. Thanks for the laugh!
12
Does 'shadenfreude' explain the NY Times's relentless attacks on the Chinese government and system? Is the Times unable to ever write about China's successes because it wants to at least believe that our sad system, with Trump at its helm, is still better than what they have over there?
China's response to the virus has been superb, according to the WHO. Unfortunately, to know that by reading the Times, one would have to search very hard. But one would be hard-pressed to believe the World Health Organization in the face of the Times's extensive coverage of just how poorly the Chinese are coping.
I get it: the Chinese, in order to govern a population of 1.5 billion people, don't permit our precious free speech. OMG!
Now: why not try looking, at least once in a while, at all the remarkable achievements and successes of the Chinese approach?
All the news that's fit to print, indeed.
19
I can't imagine there's even one western country that would have been half as efficient as China has been in trying to control this viral outbreak. Of course there were mistakes and under estimation.. and an attempt to control the narrative by downplaying its significance. But all of this - and more - would have happened too in the US.. but the actual pragmatism the Chinese have adopted and implemented, once the scale and threat become fully apparent, is far beyond anything the west could have implemented.
16
You forget the Chinese are more “efficient” precisely because they are authoritarian.... and even then the Chinese have come up far short of what’s needed to contain the epidemic. Given choice between full fledged but chaotic democracy and pristine authoritarianism, the average chinese would choose democracy. Which is what western countries are known for.
4
Let’s hope there will be no such outbreak in America. Not sure how American government and Trump will cope. Yes there are mistakes by Chinese government, but the outbreak has tapered off - which is truly important for now. Maybe it’s just so easy to criticize a government when you don’t actually live in a country where the outbreak is literally around you.
3
The Chinese youths may well change their minds after they have a chance of looking how the Coronavirus spread elsewhere and the to witness how totally unprepared the Rest of the World it to the risk of pandemic like the current pandemic. I write this in light of yesterday's CDC announcement that the Coronavirus will have infection cluster in US. It is not a matter of if, but when. A related article appears in WSJ stating that the CDC work was delayed because the wrong test was use to detect the virus!!!
13
The coronavirus is but a speck of dust in the time of a nation. Whereas free speech and democracy with voting rights for all is far more meaningful to citizens in the short and long run. Besides this time with the Chinese it’s personal: they are seeing their families, friends, neighbors get sick and die. Combine that with the ineffective way the Chinese authoritarians have controlled the situation, one doubts if the Chinese youth will make peace with their govt
1
It’s never optimal for a society when a small oligarchy is in command, monopolizing power and knowledge. As the world is now a village, any subdistrict of the village living under dictatorship is bad for the rest of the village. The Chinese dictatorship delayed the alert on the danger of the virus by at least one month relative to what would have happened if the pandemic had started in an advanced democracy..
Ignorance comes from not knowing facts. In the most acute form, it crystallizes itself by clinging to dogma: a rigid set of beliefs is supposed the know-all, be-all, can-all. This is what happens with any tribalism or religion, even when the religion is the cult of a leader... such as Stalin, or Xi… Or G W. Bush, invading Iraq.
Ignorance is never safe. Secrecy can rarely be justified on the part of those entrusted with power. We are a world village. Our primary objective should be to make the world safer and better for all, and that requires debating well, to find better solutions. And debating optimally requires optimal information. Also the debate gives its chance to the most unexpected ideas, the more people take part in it. This is the deepest, most fundamental reason for democracy.
The more democracy, the more a people is forced to learn to think by itself, including forced to learn how one suspects, and gathers the most important facts. Once again, it’s not just a matter of choice, national preference, but of safety of spaceship Earth we all live on.
6
The CCP China did nothing for several months, now they have pandemic level. The way this one party system is structured, makes them highly effective at controlling and repressing its own people. Right now they are rounding people like an infested farm.
IT IS TIME TO PUSH FOR A MULTI PARTY SYSTEM IN CHINA MAINLAND.
7
It is amazing to see how the media can spin everything into negative narrative towards how China handle this crisis.
I am pretty disappointment for the slow response and outraged regarding the disastrous claim that the virus was not capable of human to human transmission at the beginning. However portraying the cause of the outbreak and and disaffection of the handling as the consequence of the authoritarian nature of the Chinese government/ccp couldn't be far from the truth.
19
But it is. If Chinese citizens had full on voting rights, their government will be kicked out by election. Precisely what would happen in any sizable democracy.
6
@Eastbackbay Does nature disaster like this has anything to do with what kind of political system China has? Does a democratic politcal system can prevent Chinese people eating wild anamlas? Are you serious about your logic here?
3
The problem with this reporter is she assumes China's propaganda machine is all powerful and its citizens are mindless sheep. The chaotic scene she is describing could be happening in any country where the health care system is overwhelmed. It's also natural for any government in times of crisis to try boost public morale by emphasizing on the positive. Does she prefer the Communist regime to tell its citizens that there's no cure in sight and they're all going to die?
As for the Chinese themselves, anybody who has lived in China or has Chinese relatives will tell you they are one of the most critical and undisciplined groups of people on earth. They're always complaining about this and that and will look for loopholes in laws that don't make sense to them. If it does make sense, they'll quickly fall in line with no complaints and follow the letter of the law like the quarantine. It has nothing to do with the regime loosing or tightening its gripe. After decades of Communist indoctrination, they know what propaganda is when they see it. The difference between the Chinese and the Americans is most Chinese don't believe in everything they read in the news while most Americans do.
32
@Michael Totally agree. Couldn't have said it better myself!
5
Quite a reach in your argument towards the end. Let the Chinese govt open up internet to its citizens and we’ll see how comfortable the citizens are to life under current authoritarianism.
7
@Eastbackbay it might also become that a lot of westerners start to be jealous about luxurious Chinese life...And imagine Trump's tweet being attacked by 1 billion people in a single day. LOL
What I find in China is a nobel people who overwhelmingly dedicating themselves to fight against an illness that threatens us all. China is fighting successfully and the illness is controlled through the country beyond Hubei Province and slowly with great effort coming under control in Hubei. I honor the self-sacrificing Chinese people and am grateful to them and know they are proud of the efforts they have been making.
27
@Nancy "Noble People"? Sounds like someone has been reading from the Xi playbook of talking points. Pitiful.
6
@Michael W. Espy Cheap shot.
1
What this is doing is re=establishing China front and center for what it is: a massive brainwashing operation that operates on a grand theft scale.
I used to tell folks when they asked me about doing business with or near the Chinese this - You can make a small fortune doing business with China, but only if you started out with a really big fortune.
China can't tell the truth about anything because lying on a grand scale is official government policy.
It's just the way it is, or China's form of government can't be sustained. Toe the party line and you might be able to make some money and send your kid to a U.S., Canadian or Western European university.
However, if that kid were to come back and question the government on any level, the kid gets no work, or is imprisoned.
See? This is China.
This virus is exposing the government in ways the 1989 crackdown never could.
U.S, companies that went there for the cheap labor are now sweating out their supply chains. The markets are seeing the impact of the cutoff of all the stuff from China on the world economy.
This crisis is a real-time example of what I have always told my kids - "Everything comes at a price, except your soul. So, never sell your soul. For, if you do, you have nothing left at all but meaningless stuff."
It's time for the world to pay up.
120
@John Harrington
Quote: "lying on a grand scale is official government policy."
Describes Trump perfectly.
48
@John Harrington you are correct. I stop shopping at Walmart because of made in China stuffs. Will never go to Walmart because all they want is cheap laborers in China but also cheaper labor in U.S. If peoples consumers continue to shop at Walmart then tax payers will continue to pay for Snap/Medicaid/housing/etc. For Walmart employees. Stop going to Walmart. Let them fail.
14
@John Harrington
people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
5
At the risk of sounding culturally biased, perhaps we should call the new virus "the lying Chinese government Wuhan coronavirus", not because of anger, but for the sake of speaking the truth. In a recent NYTimes op-ed piece, it was pointed out that "killing the messenger" has been an ancient Chinese tradition going as far back as Confucius. The present virus was given a one-month head start in Wuhan precisely because of such a repressive attitude displayed by Chinese "authorities".
20
@D M
Be careful; Trump also lied about it. Thankfully, the CDC is being honest and trying to help, despite the recent cuts in their funding. One thinks we could have maintained their funding and staff, and perhaps let one destroyer go without a new paint job instead.
10
This appalling article is what propaganda is all about, false and vindictive and meant to harm a people who are working against a fearsome illness. China is already showing a dramatic improvement in the work against the coronavirus and should be congratulated and used as a model as leaders of the World Health Organization have said.
I am grateful to China for the way in which control of this illness is being accomplished.
18
@Nancy If you had peruse Li Yuan's articles on NYT, you would find a common theme, they are all negative on China. She has a knack of twisting the most positive story about China into a dark and ominous one, and the tone is always vindictive. She is obviously someone who has an axe to grind again China. Funny thing is, she herself is a product of China. I wonder if she views herself through the same negative lens that she uses on everything from China?
4
@Eric That's too complicated. All Li wanted is a US green card, and this is the way for her to get it. Just like many of the 1989 "democracy activists" and Hong Kong "freedom fighters".
2
Seems as if the Chinese government and its media supporters are skilled in the dark arts of "fake news."
9
This article will make you cry: Doctors and nurses fighting coronavirus in China die of both infection and fatigue, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-02-25/doctors-fighting-coronavirus-in-china-die-of-both-infection-and-fatigue
10
If only we could make the same claim about Fox and other low-info, high-hysteria alt-right propaganda types.
Of course, in trumpworld it's ALWAYS someone else's fault so don't you dare critisize trump's fanboys at Fox. Ever.
8
Hooray for the Chinese youth! Fight back against your terrible leader .
10
@John Senetto You should take what Li Yuan wrote with a grain of salt. She has a narrative, but that narrative is far from the whole picture or the truth.
3
In Mr Xi's China bad news is illegal.
12
@Chris in Ms. Li's world good China news is illegal
1
Propaganda, in some people’s eyes, is a tool for totalitarian government. But propaganda delivers hope for certain people. Without hope, there is no future.
So when people sank into depressed, just watch some Tik Tok clips telling stories of doctors and nurses in Wuhan.
1
The best we can hope for in China from the fallout of this latest viral attack from the bowels of Chinese food handling is that the citizens of this subjected nation will start to rebel against all the negatives of this closed society.
7
Challenge?
Utter nonsense.
The bloody fist that will be used as the party dictators see necessary has not been used because they do not see it as necessary.
There is no zero none zilch challenge. There is irritation with a distraction. Trumpian.
2
And this is what the current Dem frontrunner, Bernie, wants for us? No thanks. No sale. As bad as he is, I'll take Trump.
1
As someone watching the US election and primaries from afar (Canada), I have not got that impression from Sanders at all. I'm worried I may be missing information. In what ways is this similar to what Sanders is attempting to accomplish?
16
@Mike F.
It's a shame you're so confused, Mike. You might want to read up on Sanders' positions. And on a little something called democratic socialism, which is decidedly not being practiced in China.
4
@Mike F. I'm not a Bernie fan either, but if you actually believe that his platform is to create a police state under a single-party rule, you are appallingly misinformed.
5
I don't have much to add. I just want to point out what I think is a flaw in logic in most critics' comments on China. We currently do not know how many people are infected in Iran, Japan, S Korea, and even the United States. The scientific method of determining whether someone is infected or not has basically a 50% chance of getting it right. You can be infected without showing symptoms. You can be infected even if you don't test positive. At this point, if we asked Japan, South Korea, and Iran to tell us how many people are infected, do you think they could give us an accurate number? The best we can get is an educated guess. Currently, news about those countries tell us the number of people doctors have diagnosed.
In reality, China has done the same, but somehow we give their government a double standard. We continue to criticize China for lying and hiding infected #s but a method of actually knowing those numbers doesn't exist.
The best thing China has done is cooperate with the WHO. The worst thing they have done is allow local government officials to hide the disease at first. But since then, Chinese health professionals have been doing their best to diagnose the infected based on clinical signs and the Chinese government has done its best to contain and prevent the spread of Covid-19. In the end, all I'm asking is to stop criticizing China for lying or hiding the facts. If you think they deserve it, just be consistent and do it to S. Korea, Japan, and the U.S. too.
32
@Kevin 1. Critics have already been criticizing Trump from day one 2. Plenty of criticism for mishandling the cruise ship debacle 3. Of COURSE China deserves the most criticism. They were warned about this virus for over 15 years, ever since SARS. No other country imposes the level of censorship and threats on free speech with regard to this health emergency as Mainland china has. You think criticism should be like participation trophies? Give me a break.
15
@Kevin 1. Critics have already been criticizing Trump from day one 2. Plenty of criticism for mishandling the cruise ship debacle 3. Of COURSE China deserves the most criticism. They were warned about this virus for over 15 years, ever since SARS. No other country imposes the level of censorship and threats on free speech with regard to this health emergency as Mainland china has. You think criticism should be like participation trophies? Give me a break.
Also I have relatives in China and there IS a way to determine these numbers. Turns out burning thousands of diseased bodies leave a trace.
5
@M. Paire At some point in the last two months, China went from covering it up (at a local level) to being as open (to the WHO) and supportive of the medical efforts and containment as possible. I am not advocating for you to stop criticizing China. I am only advocating less criticism revolving around calling them liars and hiding facts. If you want to criticize them for not creating a political environment that supports a positive first response, I will agree with you. But we should be clear what we are critiquing them on, not falling into patterns of generalized critique without attention to detail.
Again, should we be criticizing the Chinese government for lying or hiding numbers that realistically and scientifically cannot be determined? If so, I urge you to call the Japanese and South Korean governments liars too.
6
“ Retirees who donate their life savings anonymously in government offices.” Really? This is the sort of danger from any “sacrifice all for the good” types of messages, regardless of the source.
We are at a time of global capacity with technology and innovation to replace old world saws with new age tools. If robots can build cars, please don’t tell me we cannot solve simple problems like this with aggregated analysis of data and distribution of resources to mitigate these and other risks. Amazon? Google? We’re on the cusp of an order of governance that rounds the hard edged dogma of nationalistic traditions, and opens the door to alignments at the base to understand sustainable life cycles. Politicians, step aside, observe.
2
Like other media observers, this author underestimates largely the power of self propaganda by the mob. Articles by so said non-government writers, like Zhanhao, Zhou Xiaobo, spread quickly to major population for praising CN govt's "strong measurements, great efforts, no any other country could do so ", and in the meanwhile, to criticize US for not helping or even trying to sabotage CN. Such messages are highly absorbed by ordinary people especially less educated or seniors, and they are broadcasting these kind messages to others voluntarily by social media Wechat. Unfortunately, they are the main stream while who can obtain information and think independently are far less than minority. Sad, but it is real situation.
7
As so many civilizations and cultures before it, China has met the enemy and it is themselves. How many times in history has this failed social contract played out? Give up your own individual liberty for the sake of the whole society and safety. It’s an empty bargain. Wouldn’t it be ironic if after all China has gone through, that it is taken down by a microscopic virus?
23
What's "New New World" to me is not what classic Chinese Authoritarianism is doing, nor western liberalism. What's new is Trump-style American authoritarianism that misleads and rejects facts, truth and science in much the same way that all authoritarianism, whether leftist or rightist, does. This is true with Trump (and increasingly his Republican sycophants) on a wide range of topics ranging from Corona virus to Russian interference in elections, the Ukraine "investigations", to climate change, among other things. I'm also tired of so-called "Western elites" being blamed for all of the world's problems by people aligned with the group of billionaires currently controlling the Administration.
9
@Jack
Well stated. We should look at our country before we look at other countries.
1
There needs to be more of an honest conversation about how this all came about. Clinging on to cultural practices and habits that are medically ineffective and that disregard nature and other species does not bode well for the human race. Like it or not, there are consequences when wildlife is only seen as an economic commodity for human consumption and animals of all kinds are captured, raised and slaughtered in unspeakably heartless and inhumane ways.
13
This article points out the fundamental way that Chinese regimes through history have behaved- and how they have failed. Their focus has been to present an aura of benevolent authoritarianism that will ensure the best life possible for the citizen as long as that person obeys the rules. If there seems to be significant discontent growing then a stern crackdown is necessary to remind the population that the regime is in charge and undermine any possibility of rebellion before it becomes a threat.
What eventually happens however is that the inconsistencies catch up and the people become disillusioned with the now not so benevolent authority in some crisis or another. It has been happening in Hong Kong with its long history of relative freedom of expression and this present situation is an example of the kind of event that could, someday, bring it to the mainland. Xi will lose his control if he has too many more failures because the Communist Party does not want to lose its control.
7
A passage in the ancient I Ching notes that when the government becomes oppressive, the people become cunning. Skepticism about the official line is not limited to China but I'm certain it is omnipresent there. Still, could we build an entire working hospital in 2 weeks? As bad is it is in China. citizens there have more access to medical care than many here do. We are in a far more precarious position in our ability to deal with a pandemic than many countries are, including China. Cuba, Canada and even Mexico.
3
@Al M That entire working hospital was a concrete slab with portable walls and toilet facilities. Staff and patients have to use portable toilets outside the structure. They are isolation units at best, if you can call 20 in a room isolated.
China saw how the West marveled at the Tesla factory construction and did this in Wuhan as a distraction.
Do not believe a word coming out of China.
10
What's "New New World" about this? It's sounds like classic chinese authoritarianism meets western liberalism to me. There's nothing new here...other than the failure of western elites to challenge the Chinese Communist Party's totalitarian program.
6
@Matthew Hall , Electing Mr. Trump,who is not an embodiment of liberalism, sends a message to
the world that western liberalism
has been replaced by populism,
America first, rule of law is irrelevant. Recently Mr Trump
has insinuated he is the law.Why
would China care about liberalism
which is being challenged in the
west. They have the same priority,
communist party first. Bring the
liberalism back here instead of
worrying about Chinese
authoritarianism. By the way, we
always coddled authoritarian rulers
ranging from shah of Iran to Hosni Mubarak, Augusto Pinochet, Batista.Now Mr. Trump is very friendly with the authoritarian rulers like Mr. Modi.whom he just visited, Putin, Orban,et al.
4
I hope when we looked at those numbers, we can realize that there are so many brave, inspiring and sad stories behind.
2
How ironic. The tyrant controlling a country of 1.5 billion people endangered by a minuscule virus.
His propaganda is cracking from to side.
14
The World Health Organization has said repeatedly that China's response to the contagion has been exemplary, a judgment reiterated by American academics and health professionals returning from China and interviewed by the BBC only a few days ago. But here in the US, some media outlets are using the crisis to taunt the Chinese government, blaming it for its supposedly incompetent and cowardly handling of the situation, when in fact our ally, Japan, has done a much worse job. Let's see how well our superior system of government deals with crisis when it explodes on our shores in a few weeks. Only yesterday, our President condemned the CDC for rattling the stock market. Even if we have another Hurricane Katrina-style meltdown, or a Puerto Rico-style example of total paralysis, it will still be China's fault, I suspect.
32
@Kurt Spellmeyer , American criticism is motivated by the
challenge China poses to its
leadership or hegemony. It has
no merit. Americans have long
established tradition of demonising
their rivals.In 1980s it was Japan
which posed a great threat to
American auto industry making
junk cars and electronics. We are
friendly with Japan since it has
gone into decline. China too will
become a friend if it goes into decline.
6
People will always distrust a message that doesn't reflect their personal experience. That seems to be as true for political propaganda as it is for commercial product advertising. When that happens, they will generally turn to other sources of information, such as rumor and gossip.
1
In the photo of A vigil for Dr. Li Wenliang. New York Times should have written it’s in Hong Kong. Because in China, citizens won’t have the right to gather, never mind openly holding a vigil
12
Propaganda works on the blind masses.
6
What I find lacking in the NYT coverage is anything related to the potential inaccuracy of the reported infections/deaths in China. Does the NYT, does anyone really believe the Chinese are reporting the actual numbers or are they simply being government managed to fit the narrative?
15
". . . it undermined its implicit deal with its people, in which they trade away their individual rights for the promise of security."
That is a western media interpretation of the "deal". The actual deal is: the Communist Party is in charge. Period. If you complain, we will get you, your family, your friends, and your community.
Democracy, with all of its flaws, is the best form of government. The Chinese people are incredibly frightened by the thugs ruling them, and, possibly, even more frightened to be the masters of their own destiny. I recommend that they give democracy a try. This could be the Asian Spring; the destiny of the Chinese people should be in the hands of the Chinese people, not in the hands of the ruling thugs.
5
@NorthernVirginia have you ever been to china?
4
@June have you ever been to CA (California?)?
4
As far as I could tell, the propaganda machine is working extra hard and working very well. People inside China now think US flu is killing millions and the CCP is doing a great job beating this thing.
9
@Cindy how can you tell this?
China Daily provides an interesting look through the Communist looking glass. Over the past month the Party has been walking back their official position on an almost daily basis even as the articles are full of the Marxist rhetoric of struggle, solidarity, war and victory.
Here's one from February 11:
Wuhan is a heroic city, and the people of Hubei and Wuhan are heroic people who have never been crushed by any difficulty and danger in history.
If Wuhan wins the battle against the virus, Hubei will. If Hubei wins the battle, the nation will.
We can certainly obtain a full victory in the fight against the epidemic.
Close attention must be paid to employment and large scale layoffs should be avoided.
The fundamentals of China's long-term economic development remain unchanged and the impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic on the economy is short lived.
-- President Xi Jinping
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/
The worker may die, but the work goes on!
7
@Rational Thinker If the economy tanks it takes the CCP with it.
3
Have you seen the press conference by Dr. Bruce Aylward from the World Health Organisation on February 25?
If not, let aside your prejudices, hurry up and inform yourself first hand.
Moreover, please stop complaining about China and acknowledge the monumental effort they are doing for breaking the epidemic; moreover, be informed that China is a rich country that provides top-notch health care to their citizens.
Thus, Please hurry up with préparations in your countries. No, you are not prepared.
And no, I have no relations with China. Right now here in Switzerland, the amateurs of the Swiss Health Ministry have been comparing this new virus with "a common cold". Amateurs. This is going to kill people here!
7
@Volutes That weird "China is best country" tangent makes me doubt you're impartial. No ten cents for you.
12
@Volutes Disinformation and cover up facilitated the spreading of the virus. Nothing China can be proud of.
I will also take their numbers about new cases with a pinch of salt. They are probably better than Iran at cooking statistics, but the Chinese administration have a long history of not being honest.
55
@SomeGuy Hi, go and listen to Dr. Bruce Aylward from the World Health Organisation. I found his press conference enlightening. It's ok if you doubt of my impartiality. People have difficulties getting out of their frame of mind and process new information constructively.
The special difficulty here is that there is a problem to solve: i.e. a virus epidemic to avoid. No tangent "China is not best country" will help my parents, my wife's parents and my wife's grandmother, who are all live here in Switzerland and are in the risk category: elderly people.
When I hear by the World Health Organisation that a province in China is capable of processing hundreds of thousands of Coronavirus tests and I compare that with the pitiful response of my government that proudly announces that Switzerland will aim to process... 1000 tests a day, I am fuming!
2
Haven't the Chinese figured out all they have to do is wait until Spring, when it gets warmer, and miracously, no more virus.
3
@RNS Warmer? Do you mean like Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines? Hot countries with reported cases. This is not the same as Sars 1 which did disappear in the spring.
3
Hopefully it doesn't weaken their strong manufacturing base; "American" products and I have to be made In Chiner so that they aren't too expensive this is a must... so as to keep things as they been for the past 20 years
Idiom: if it ain't made in China then you're paying too much for it (them workers must be closely supervised by a tyrant, though).
We have our horrific factory farms and that is probably where China is heading not only with livestock, but also wildlife. Unfortunately in the future the only animals left on the planet will be living in cages and marketed in high end restaurants.
2
What might happen if the Xi virus infects China's leadership, and even Xi himself?
2
China's communism should die; Xi Jinping should be ousted; China should own the Coronavirus and do not protect its borders against the virus that it created. Chjna should be ashamed of itself for creating the coronavirus and not learning from the SARS virus outbreak. China should apologize to other countries for exporting the Coronavirus.
6
It's bizarre to read so many NYT comments defending the integrity of the Communist Party on so many articles amidst the fiasco that is this the COVID-19 epidemic (possibly pandemic). I don't know whether the party has that many online propaganda trolls or NYT subscribers are that are that passionate in their anti-Trump whataboutism, but it's all rather beside the point, no?
China deserves criticism for its handling of the disease's spread and the conditions that allowed it to take root in the first place, not to mention its draconian policies suppressing dissent. NYT is right to highlight the weaknesses of their totalitarian ethno nationalist state in handling this public health crisis, regardless of our broader feelings of the Trump administration.
81
@Todd Bollinger it strikes me as intellectually lazy to dismiss any criticism of mainstream media coverage of China as simple anti-Trump contrarianism. I don't like Trump, but irrespective of his China policy I think that the mainstream media has been doing a horrible job covering China issues in an evenhanded way dating back to well before his presidency. China is often (or, depending on your perspective, relentlessly) pilloried as a horrible state on its way to imminent collapse under the stewardship of CPC. And yet through decades of doomsaying, from the New York Times to Radio Free Asia, China is basically stronger than ever; the continued trajectory of 1980s Dengist reforms, expanded on and modified by Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and made a country that was an insignificant backwater 100 years ago one of, if not the, global preeminent powers.
I'm not telling you to support China, but you should take the overarching meta-narrative you read about it in Western reporting with many grains of salt. My believing that is wholly irrelevant to anything Trump whatsoever.
11
@W. Sherman "lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty" This is the hallmark talking point of almost all CCP nationalists, nothing short of "western media is bias" talk. I doubt your arguments would fare that well with HK democracy advocates or Taiwanese who have access to ALL media not yet stuck behind the firewall with only CCP-narrative. For all your optimistic "CCP is great" talk, record numbers continue to try to emigrate out. They want out.
Talk is cheap, look at where they're going, where they park their money and children.
41
@Todd Bollinger they DEFINITELY have a huge budget to fund online propaganda cyber army trolls aka "wumao"s. Twitter and youtube already announced the deletion of thousands of fake social media accounts in their desperate lying campaign to discredit the Hong Kong democracy movement (see their famous clumsy attempt at hijacking the 'First they came...' poem). They're the same people. It's whataboutism and hypocrisy all day, every day, while simultaneously jumping the VPN to access sites banned by China, using free speech to defend their CCP's authority to suppress free speech.
11
Today is the first time there are more (daily) newly infected cases outside of China than inside. Even inside China, excluding Hubei province, the newly infected cases are in the teens. The data speaks itself: despite initial stumbling, Beijing is beating this thing. Let’s hope this is the start of new dawn even when the rest of world just stepped into the night.
5
@Tim Teng China stopped reporting numbers. You are lost in the night, and the virus is dreaming of you.
10
@Kevin
Not true. I've been following its numbers, charts and graphs since day 1. NY-time won't let me post the link. But sina dot cn does have it. You just need to dig around a bit.
Btw, WHO is going off China's figures (latest update 2/27, 4am Beijing time)
So typical of Li Yuan and NY Times to push negative stories about China in the all out China-Bashing regime with bipartisan support across American politics.
Let's see how Americans react as Covir-19 arrives in USA, not that Canadian really want to see it. As the saying goes, when USA sneezes Canada get a cold. Canada-USA border is too porous, as big Canadian cities see sharp increase in gun violence in recent years as guns are sneaked north.
15
@Observer Li Yuan did not invent the news about what is going on or the people's reaction. It is simply the reality, even if you don't like it and even if America isn't ready to handle this kind of pandemic.
32
@Observer - There are two sides to every coin, while you see the article as a negative story about China's propaganda machine, I see the article as a positive story about China's youth standing up and fighting for what they believe in.
14
Your comment has a bit of truth to it, comrade.
1
We need to refrain from smugness and feeling superior. Just imagine how most of Red State America would, and WILL respond to an outbreak. The folks that disbelieve in “ Science “ will be looking for a bailout, with lives at stake. And THEIR great leader will be campaigning and golfing. The words Trump and Pandemic are a terrifying combination.
NOVEMBER.
68
I fully expect the Trump administration to far exceed the Chinese government in incompetence, lies, and disinformation.
117
@mja I don't. People that work in the field of infectious diseases certainly do not do it for the money (Its not a lucrative field).
They also do not play politics and we have plenty of very competent people at the CDC, NIH, and even the IDSA.
12
@Herry
Perhaps. But I have yet to see any Trump loyalist display even the slightest bit of competency and understanding of their job.
I just wonder who’s left at those institutions after The Duhnald razed them.
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@mja Having spent plenty of time working in China, I can assure you that your expectations have already been surpassed.
I have often thought the silver lining of all the horrors of SARS-Cov-2 might be a free China.
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New York Times article pushing the same old “threat to legitimacy” tripe about anything/everything occurring in China.
Think China isn’t handling the coronavirus properly? Fine, then look in the mirror. Look at the lawsuit in Costa Mesa. Think Americans are going to be willing to sacrifice anything, or will it be the same old NIMBY attitude? Unfortunately, I think NIMBY will prevail...
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There are a few brave souls willing to say the truth about what is going on in China. They know the government lies about everything and this virus is an example. This is one of several reasons one should not believe what the government says about the number and distribution of those infected especially now that the government is pushing so hard to get factories back up and running ASAP.
Take note that the government is not saying anything further about about infections in prisons or in the far west where in truth at least two million muslims are being held in camps. There are several social media posts that say infections have spread there. Nothing from the government that does not want any information to escape from those prisons and camps.
In a society where the government will always lie about everything we should be careful about what we should believe about the coronavirus in China.
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@Robert Breeze And your source about the Chinese government lying about everything?
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We have a president who's telling us all is well, which is reason enough to panic. His administration's chief concern seems to be how the corona virus affects the stock market and will do its utmost not to rattle Wall Street, even if it means dispensing a torrent of lies. I'll be curious to see how our state propaganda machine, Fox News, handles this, though there's little doubt in my mind.
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It's clear even from this story it's not just "young" people questioning Beijing's propaganda push. Chinese of all ages are pushing back and it's the older people who have the institutional memory to provide this push back a very necessary context and God forbid judgement. Also "middle aged" and "old" people in China are far more active with social media than their Western counterparts. Hence China's successe in rolling out things like electronic payments.
For all the money and resources the NYT invests in its China coverage it still doesn't understand the country very well or it's culture. You can't use a Western template in analyzing the Middle Kingdom.
"Young" people are not going to bring about change in China. It's the "middle aged" and "older" segments of the population that will ultimately make that call.
Here's a tip. Once Beijing loses the "Da Ma" (Big Mothers) a term roughly equivalent to "Aunties" that refers to the huge cohort of Chinese middle aged to older women who often play an outsize role in their extended families and exert equal parts resented and welcome influence on the younger members of their families - all bets are off.
Continued stable improvement in quality of life and security for their families without too much annoying intrusion by a competent government is their measuring standard.
If the Coronavirus exposes the current government as incapable of continuing to achieve these goals - the "Da Ma" will, in large part, determine its fate.
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@Belasco The same sector of women in South Korea do have considerable clout as well since many hold the purse strings.
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I think that the NYT is really pushing this idea that China is close to collapse. That seems highly unlikely and it certainly speaks to a weird kind of hopeful thinking on the part of the Western media. China is dealing with an unprecedented crisis. It has definitely made mistakes, but mistakes that have been mirrored by many other governments in the past. China's handling of the crisis has been reasonably competent and is getting increasingly so. When this is all over, the Chinese government will still be there. Wishing it away is not enough to make it collapse.
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@Shaun Narine I think what they're saying is that people are seeing first hand the downsides of a government stifling free speech. Whatever happens afterward, the government has itself to blame.
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I am no China hater, I’ve been there many times and love the country and the people;
However the Chinese government is a control freak. I’d be extremely sceptical that the number of infections is as low as they make out. Looking how quickly this has spread in South Korea, Italy and even Iran (whom also censor information heavily) I’d be very surprised that only 70k from 11m residents of Wuhan are infected. Looking anecdotally at pieces like this, seeing hospitals literally bursting seems to back this up.
I don’t doubt their sincerity and determination to defeat the virus but the figures over the last few days seem to too perfectly fit the narrative; cases & deaths are dropping each day, the infections are limited to Hubei. The government has to justify the tough measures they are putting in place by showing progress, in for one doubt those figures.
PS there’s a good piece in The Economist that statistically compares mortality rates in outbreaks between open democracies and authoritarian states, open societies have significantly less deaths due to the open flow of information.
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The US should be prepared for itself, instead of criticizing China. My family and friends are still staying home safe in Xiaogan, 30 miles from Wuhan. Through them I understand how the whole nation of China is making a coordinated action against the COVID-19. Actually people related to the communist party are the majority working on the battlefront. One of my cousin's husband who work in the government has been working continuously for a month and seldom had a six-hour sleep. They also deliver food and vegetable once per week to every community in Xiaogan. All the people I know apparently support the action and endure self quarantining and working from home.
Indeed there are many sacrifices by countless doctors, soldiers and public service working closely with the patients. Many of them get infected and died. However, the spread of images with people dead from the virus explains nothing about the government's legitimacy, but it merely adds to horror. Without dying, without the many more being saved.
Without the coordinated actions, the quarantine of more than half China's population, and the huge economical sacrifice that China has made to stop its big engine, the virus could have infected many more people around the world.
Better read the news from WHO's delegate to China for facts.
Now it is the time when, not if, the virus spreads in the US. So the US should better prepare for a hard task to defend people's health that could be as challenging as China is facing.
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We have learned to be skeptical of what WHO declares, as it’s credibility has been undermined by political interests.
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@Charlie Chan OK I trust facts, not WHO and not speculating without seeing. I lived in Wuhan for 5 years. still many friends and classmates are there during this crisis. Recently our class has organized donations to the Dr. Li Wenliang's hospital. That is what ordinary people can do.
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I think you are a little confused, the US press and US government are not related. The government does what it does the press reports on what it wants, China included. If the US government fails to protect the US press will be there to to show the world.
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I have seen some truly heartbreaking Chinese videos on-line. People being forced into quarantine. One poor woman clearly risking her life by going public cried in frustration how ordinary people like her family would not be able to receive care.
It's hard to imagine these videos surfacing under normal circumstances. The Chinese government has lost control to some extent.
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The strength of a democracy is not that it is more efficient than an authoritarian regime. It's strength and value come from the fact that it provides a safety valve in times of crisis. Democracies allow dissenters to warn society when danger threatens and can push alternative ideas when the power structure is mired in bad policy. When authoritarian regimes suppress dissent, they are also suppressing potential solutions in a time of crisis. While all of this could be expected from China's authoritarian government there are ominous signs that Trump will try to treat the coming pandemic as a PR problem rather than a medical crisis. If he does a lot of people will die from the resulting policy and logistics blunders as the disease spreads.
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@JS ". . . there are ominous signs that Trump will try to treat the coming pandemic as a PR problem rather than a medical crisis."
If you ever have the opportunity to visit the US, you will find that we are more effective in crises because we don't sit on our hands and wait for a central government to dictate how we should respond. State and local governments are, according to our constitution, responsible for the health of their residents. Moreover, responsible individuals in our society often take the initiative and they do not worry if their selfless actions of aid will embarrass anyone.
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@JS The Chinese government is blocking corporations and foreign agencies like the Red Cross from helping. They want one voice and one control. They even kept doctors from the WHO from entering the country for weeks. Instead of acknowledging the problem and requesting solutions, their tactic is to silence and to mislead. People have always said: Never trust a Communist government.
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@NorthernVirginia Reminds me of Katrina...every government has its share of stumbles in handling events of this magnitude.
When you look at some of the CCP propaganda, they talk to the people of China like they're children. The dictators of China have treated their people that way for 2000 years. The Emperors were dictators, yes, and life was never ever particularly "glorious" for China's masses, despite what the government likes to say.
.
This notion of dictatorships, controlling society, died a natural death over the past few centuries around most of the globe. It's going to go away one day in China too. The notion, held out by the Communists, that the people of China aren't ready for self determination is absurd. They're as ready as people in the West. May the day come soon.
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@West Coaster. Are you really sure the West is ready for self determination? This is hard for most to grasp, but “Asia” is not China. Shanghai and Xiamen are only vaguely like China. China is not even remotely like the rest of Asia.
Most folks still live inland, the vast majority in fact. What I’ve learned living inland is that very few care about all the stuff Westerners think they should be caring about, and of those few, even fewer are willing to stick their necks out to say something about it. The government, however bogus you and I know it is, has come thru for about 700 million Chinese citizens. You know what I hear a lot? “The government got us water.” “The government built and paved a road.” Life is hard in China. Unbelievably hard. It’s the “rich” city kids that talk about democracy. Most folks are just looking to survive.
In short, it ain’t like people think and it ain’t like people want it to be. It’s like it is, which is a long way from self determination.
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@Kurt Frogs stuck in the well probably never think about the how vast the sky could be.
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@Kurt That same government that also killed tens of millions with asinine policies and the Cultural Revolution, which they to this day, they either downplay or refuse to talk about. One shouldn't get credit for patching a flood they caused in the first place.
And of course if your only choice is to be "grateful" or be imprisoned/detained/have your livelihood destroyed, that's not much of a choice is it?
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Absolute power corrupts absolutely – someone has said.
The corrollary is that absolute false information turns folks into absolute non believers.
We in America always wondered what's the limit to which an average Chinese will put up with government heavy hand.
Well, it appears they have met that heavy hand _and they don't like it one bit.
I think – Reagan had famously said that internet, wifi revolution will bring down the iron curtain.
The Chinese –thru their efforts are bringing down their equivalent bamboo curtain.
The Chinese government made much of WSJ op-ed with it's headline –” the Dying man in China” or something to that effect.
The dying man in China is the propaganda machine – and I think that's good for the Chinese and the world.
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@Neil
With all due respect, it's highly unlikely Reagan would have said "that internet, wifi revolution will bring down the iron curtain" prior to 1990.
Reagan opened up military GPS data to the general public which eventually led to many important functions we now utilize daily. Perhaps that's where you're confused.
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Coronavirus may be the thing that finally disrupts the Trump/Fox News/Talk radio propaganda machine. We have been warned that his is going to affect the US, and very possibly disrupt daily life. All Trump is worried about is himself, as usual. His "administration" took an ax to the agency that handles pandemic response. Wake up, people. He doesn't care.
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@Maureen Will the coronavirus cause sufficient disruption for Trump to try to cancel the coming conventions this summer, or perhaps even the election? If he fears losing the election, he's capable of anything. Now is the time to push for voting by mail, on paper ballots.
Another thought: Should Trump try something drastic, a national strike (quarantine) might be in order. Wild speculation I know, but......who really knows?
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There haven't been enough decent and patriotic Americans to stop Trump in the past 3 years, what makes you think they'll start now? The regressive right faces no consequences from supposedly progressive Americans.
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@Eds Asperson I'm as frustrated as you about the lack of decent and patriotic progressive Americans, and have been since I was drafted. But if this does turn into a major medical crisis here in the USA, at some point the regressive right will have to come to terms with the fact that all their guns and assault weapons will be useless against a Covid-19.
“The official media,” Ms. Zhao said, “has lost a lot of credibility.”
It never was credible. It was and is propaganda and the Chinese people live in a stifling autocratic country.
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@ana
Ah - you mean what the GOP calls democracy.
Good article. All true....but.....
I live in the middle of the country. What your'e describing is young people in Shanghai, Xiamen, parts of Beijing, and a few other wealthy cities that comprise a very small minority of youth. I live in Wuhan, and have an approximate 1 million students as "neighbors". I see the Weibo posts and the WeChat Moments that are deleted in short order I hear a little of what you said on the street; very little. What I hear more is they want to get through school, get a job, and make money. Whoever gets them that, wins. There is wishful thinking on the part of Western media to make these relatively few folks into a movement.
As far as education, the latest government decree is that all universities, meaning ALL universities, shall have minimum 1:5 ratios....one Party supervisor per every 5 professors. That ratio is planned to eventually go to 1:1 at several institutions. That, in addition to the cameras and Party monitors in every classroom, and secret student cadres reporting on everything. History classes are abolished; they're now Marxist-Leninist indoctrination seminars. People have no idea what's going on here. The momentum is not toward revolution and speaking out. It's toward an acceleration of same. Yes, it's tragic.
Where it all goes is speculation at the fringe. I make no predictions. I'm only reporting from the center of the impact zone and the middle of the country where most people still live.
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@Kurt
A brief and small window into China has been opened and will likely be sealed very soon. You're right. It's wishful thinking to believe the government won't be even more controlling after this.
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@Kurt A
I can attest to this with my experience growing up in Shenzhen, one of the wealthiest in the country, and studying in the States
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@Kurt
Hope your acct. is hidden. Somehow doubtful in China as all internet state controlled and monitored. ( I know was CFO and director of a 200 plus person engineering co with offices in Shanghai and Beijing. Spent 4 months of my life there and my employees all had special private “ travel” accts that they Basically only used outside China.)
A US phone with its own Internet address, still they were visited.
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The truth will gain traction in China and among the diaspora - that the Wuhan coronavirus negligently escaped a government viral lab in Wuhan. The scientific, statistical and circumstantial evidence is developing that will prove it, not in a court, but in the minds of most people around the world.
“A new paper by Chinese researchers claims to provide further evidence that the deadly new coronavirus may not have originated in a seafood market in the city of Wuhan.
Co-authored by researchers from three Chinese institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences and published Friday on the distribution platform ChinaXiv, the study attempts to trace how the virus emerged and evolved.
The data suggest that “the SARS-CoV-2 source at the … market was imported from elsewhere,” researchers say.
The paper follows on the heels of research published last month in the well-known medical journal The Lancet challenging the hypothesis that the virus emerged at the Wuhan market. That paper analyzed 41 infected patients whose cases dated as far back as Dec. 1 and concluded that 13 of them had no links to the marketplace.” Source: ChinaXiv, a Chinese open repository for scientific researchers
Last week Xi Jinping and health officials were warning about biosafety and security at government viral labs to protect ‘the People’ from future epidemics.
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@Charlie Chan. There are now multiple credible reports from several labs indicating the virus did NOT originate in the market. The market was just the perfect vector. It was definite from some other source, still to be determined.
We’re hearing a lot of theories, none yet proven. A mistake at a lab is one of the more credible theories at this time. There is a lab quite close to the market. It is raw speculation, but speculation that’s hard to ignore.
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@Kurt
Concur. You must acknowledge the suspicion about the wet market as being ground zero is a recent development in the scientific community. It started with an article in The Lancet.
The porosity and anomalies in biosafety and security in Chinese government Virology labs is well known and irrefutable. In 2003-2004 SARS leaked out of a Beijing BSL3 virus lab by two lab techs, infecting others. The Virology Institute BSL4 lab was constructed by a Chinese company and the French company, with more extensive experience, was deselected by the government, leading to suspicion about inadequate redundant safeguards in the architecture. These labs are ticking time bombs. Even the CDC in the U.S. has had serious compliance issues documented partially by the Government Accountability Office. — 25-39 percent of lab incidents are not reported. The fault percentage might be higher in China.
6
Covid19.
A dress rehearsal for responding to climate change.
All governments need to pay attention to the lessons.
eg. They cant command a virus.
They can't command the wind
Propaganda won't save them.
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It is thanks to the vile xi and his extreme paranoia and insecurity that he and his regime have to spin "tales of perseverance" in the first place. He could've simply listened to the heroic Dr. Li Wenliang; alas, he wanted to maintain his ironfist media control and I-Alone-Can-Fix-It aura—and get an opportunity to test his authoritarian tools on the fearful populace for free!
I urge all Chinese to continue to openly speak against the regime, and name their children, their business, or even the country itself after that REAL national hero.
And I urge all able Chinese, especially those already in the military, to use their power and strength to replace the xi regime with Sane government that respects the rights and needs—and the intelligence—of the people.
In this tragic, preventable, tyrant-friendly crisis, we are ALL Dr. Li Wenliang.
5
Thanks for an informative article. I'm equally concerned about propaganda here is the USA... from the administration, and social media. It's going to be a sea of lies.
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Don't get your hopes up to high about a "Chinese Spring". It won't happen and honestly, it would not be good for China or the rest of the world. Remember the "Arab Spring" and how that played out?
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The Chinese certainly have their authoritarian and propaganda state failing them in predictable ways, although to their credit, they have taken serious steps to quarantine exposed populations.
Let's see how America's ignorant Grand Old Propaganda leadership sinks to the occasion.
In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure.
In May 2018, Trump ordered the NSC’s entire global health security unit shut down, calling for reassignment of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer and dissolution of his team inside the agency.
The month before, then-White House National Security Advisor John Bolton pressured Ziemer’s DHS counterpart, Tom Bossert, to resign along with his team.
Neither the NSC nor DHS epidemic teams have been replaced.
The global health section of the CDC was so drastically cut in 2018 that much of its staff was laid off and the number of countries it was working in was reduced from 49 to merely 10.
Meanwhile, throughout 2018, the U.S. Agency for International Development and its director, Mark Green, came repeatedly under fire from both the White House and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
And though Congress has so far managed to block Trump administration plans to cut the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps by 40%, the disease-fighting cadres have steadily eroded as retiring officers go unreplaced.
Trump Will Make The Coronavirus Great Again !
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@Socrates
This story isn't about Trump. Please try to stay on topic. You're fortunate that you live under a government run by an elected president, no matter how much you dislike him, and not Xi Jinping.
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@Socrates There are a lot of comments from your account on this thread, none of them talking about the article, but rather addressing Trump and US politics.
This reminds of the propaganda machine described by the author.
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@Herry
Why don't you fact check @socrates instead of suggesting he or she is mearly spreading propoganda?
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This is your headline
“Beijing is pushing tales of perseverance, but many young people are openly questioning the Communist Party’s message.”
Let me change it to also -
“The US is pushing tales of perseverance, but many young people are openly questioning the Capitalist Party’s message.”
- A new Yale Study shows Medicare for All will prevent 68,000 unnecessary deaths and will save $450 billion - each and every year
- 530,000 bankruptcies in 2019 from healthcare debt
- 500,000 people are sleeping out on the streets today
- The wealthiest three families now own more wealth than the bottom half of the country
We are being told the Corona virus will arrive here. Yes the US is the best in the world in health care if you are wealthy. Millions without insurance or junk insurance have learned to tough it out if they get sick. A person is not going to the doctor if their family faces bankruptcy. This is why the virus will spread here, since we care more about tax breaks and funding never ending wars than helping our people.
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@steve
Some more ironic quotes from this article translated to America today:
Quote: "State media is filling smartphones and airwaves with images and tales of unity and sacrifice aimed at uniting the people behind Beijing’s rule"
American translation: "American corporate media is flooding the airwaves with images and tales of Mr. Bloomberg as the Savior aimed at uniting the people behind the Establishments decades-old rule"
Quote: "Online, people are openly criticizing state media"
American translation: "Online, people are openly criticizing the Establishment....and are labeled in derogatory terms such as "Bernie Bros" or "Nazis".
1
I can't speak for no one else but myself. I'm a Vietnamese, living in Vietnam right now, a Communist country. I can sympathize well with these young people. I'm also a young person myself. I have seen heaps and heaps of people, imprisoned for speaking against the Communist Party, for demanding the freedom of speech, for human rights. I have seen people falsely accused of something they didn't commit, I have seen police killed civilians over land dispute and the police force is later hailed as the hero. If I have to pick between false positive and true negative, I would pick the truth. Ignorance is bliss but knowledge is power. I want to be fully informed of the scale of this. Don't listen to what a Communist says, see what a Communist does. Their censorship struggle is a sign that they aren't fooling anyone any longer. Don't let Dr. Li Wenliang's death be forgotten.
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@Anonymous As someone who lives both in Viet Nam and the USA and works in many countries in any given month, I can assure you that the fascist trump administration is working hard to censor the truth, enrich its criminal families, destroy those who question its policies of greed and power obsession, and rule with an iron fist just like the Confucianist ruling families of Viet Nam. In fact, Viet Nam is a far freer country than the USA, and much more peaceful. Don't listen to what a fascist trump crime family member says. See what it does. It will make you sick to your stomach to know how evil the fascists are. And I am not excusing the crime families ruling Viet Nam, either.
1
There is something that is not felt in people that aren't living through this. There is really is a general sense of helplessness. Like : what are we supposed to do?
Stay home. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Yeah, that's fine. And maybe that's enough. To be honest, I just start doing push ups. It's weird to feel so trapped.
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I prefer positive news reporting on every events. There will be some negative aspects on every unfortunate events. We need to know, but not every day to remind us again and again.
There are many positive aspects on Wuhan Covid-19 virus. Dr. Bruce Aylward, leader of the WHO investigating team, made a press conference in Geneva after a 9-day trip in China. He was impressed with the effort and effectiveness by the Chinese government measures to stop virus spreading. He praised the Chinese methods to cure the patients. Many EU countries continue to maintain travel arrangement with China without problems. It helps to build confidence, and in the meantime to reduce fear and panic into public mind.
We don't need propaganda. We need to spread positive news to install confidence in people's mind. After all, it affects stock markets and to be honest my retirement funds.
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@Usok
There are positive aspects of the virus? Or do you mean positive stories surrounding the virus? You said "There are many positive aspects on Wuhan Covid-19 virus". Seems like a weird take on a virus with a mortality rate of 2% that is spreading rapidly. Seems like you want happy stories because your portfolio took a hit, nevermind the deaths.
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@Usok
"We don't need propaganda. We need to spread positive news to install confidence in people's mind."
.
Priceless.
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@Usok You need to read the post from Anonymous in Vietnam. It'll set you straight on your desire to have "positive news" spread.
2
I live in Zhengzhou, Henan. We have been in lock down for a month. I teach my university classes over the internet.
I'm American, and as far as Chinese politics, I don't care one way or the other - that's for the Chinese people to decide.
The thing, it seems kinda arbitrary what you need to leave the house. I have my residence card and my QR code, it seems to work now, but you just don't know. I teach 600 students, and they all seem okay with the lock down. To my thinking; you might as well have the lock down. It can't hurt.
It's strange to live in a huge city with vacated streets, like a bad version of that Charlton Heston movie, the Omega Man. But Zhengzhou doesn't have a lot of cases - or any that I know of . So there's that.
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Of course everyone should enjoy the right to free speech. But the free spread of information necessarily also means the free spread of misinformation. Let us not forget that measles, which had been largely eradicated worldwide, made its resurgence as a result of the free flow of lies about vaccines. This has had very dangerous consequences. And now, on reader forums such as this one, people are free to spread rumors and fake news with no one stopping then. Freedom must come with responsibility.
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@WGR
It is not misinformation to say that the Chinese government mishandled the epidemic from the outset.
It is not misinformation to say that same government has sent thousands of medical personnel to the front line of an epidemic without the equipment to protect themselves or to fight the disease.
It is not misinformation to say the Chinese government has certainly lied about the number of deaths and cases.
Your concern about citizens spreading rumors and fake news seems misguided; it is the government that has done much of the misinformation mongering.
The Chinese government has much to answer for and it is rightly despised for it ineptitude in this crisis.
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@Laurence: What you list is absolutely not fake news and it’s not what I’m talking about. More about panic posts about how we all need masks, we all need to stop going out or flying, we’re all going to die of it, etc..those comments.
1
The CCP’s propaganda agenda abroad is through its ‘United Front’ organization where it has monopolized Chinese-language media in various Western democracies such as the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan. And of course, Hong Kong. It finances local politicians of Chinese ancestry favorable to Beijing. It uses the tactics of corruption, coercion and covert operations to undermine democratic processes such as elections. Through its control of the narrative about China, it seeks to silence truth tellers, critics and whistleblowers. It also mobilizes Chinese students in foreign universities to demonstrate, sometimes violently, against independence and religious movements opposed to Beijing - Taiwan, Tibet, Falun Gong or Falun Dafa, etc. Author Clive Hamilton (“Silent Invasion”) wrote extensively about these influence campaigns around the world, but especially in Australia. Any legitimate critique of China is distorted by accusations of prejudice and racism. This will be hard to twist if the critique comes from mainland Chinese. Personally, I have admired and even loved Chinese culture and people. It is tragic that the CCP’s propaganda machine has hijacked that noble and remarkable cultural tradition.
32
A billion plus individuals suffering from an epidemic and resultant healthcare crisis, the majority isolated at home in fear, is a daunting challenge for any government. Online, rumors spread faster than a virus.
Hopefully, the U.S. will not have to face massive Corona19 infections. If it does, I would be surprised and saddened if Chinese state media used it as an opportunity to score political points.
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@john
I hope you'll be proven right, but if the Chinese decide to use the eventual pandemic in the US for propaganda purposes, they'd have every right to do so. This piece is a vivid proof that something is very wrong with the US media and by extension with the average American's (and sadly Canadian's) thinking of the world outside the North-American bubble.
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@john Indeed, the US should be prepared for itself, instead of criticizing China. My family and friends are still staying home safe in Xiaogan, 30 miles from Wuhan. Without the whole nation's coordinated action against the COVID-19, without sacrifices by many doctors and soldiers working on the battlefront, without the huge economical sacrifice that China has made to stop its big engine, the virus could have infected many more people around the world. Now it is the time when, not if, the virus spreads in the US. So the US should better prepare for a hard task to defend people's health that could be as challenging as China is facing.
2
@john Don't you know? Covid-19 naturally disappears in April. Like magic. I just wonder if our President knows that the next month is March, not April...
4