China says to Italy (and the world): let’s make a deal
[Hat tip: commenter “Snow on Pine”]
Oh, the magnanimity of the Chinese government:
After COVID-19 made its way to Italy, decimating the country’s significant elderly population, China told the world it would donate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to help Italy stop its spread. Reports later indicated that China had actually sold, not donated, the PPE to Italy.
Well, we already knew that – right?
Here’s the new twist:
A senior Trump administration official tells The Spectator that it is much worse than that: China forced Italy to buy back the PPE supply that it gave to China during the initial coronavirus outbreak.
‘Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China protect its own population,’ the administration official explained. ‘China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy — some of it, not even all of it … and charged them for it.’
Now, these reports from unnamed “senior officials” are always a bit iffy. But I wouldn’t be surprised if this was true.
We do know this:
Much of the supplies and testing kits China has sold to other countries have turned out to be defective. Spain had to return 50,000 quick-testing kits to China after discovering that they were faulty. In some cases, instead of apologizing or fixing the issue, China has blamed its defective equipment on others. China condescendingly told the Netherlands to ‘double-check the instructions’ on its masks, for example, after the Netherlands complained that half of the masks they were sent did not meet safety standards.
And of course, there’s also this:
The official said China’s disinformation campaign delayed the US response by at least a month, as the coronavirus initially seemed to be a regional issue rather than a global one. As China downplayed the outbreak within its borders, nearly half a million people traveled to the US potentially carrying the virus.
It is infuriating, although unsurprising, that China is now trying to make itself out to be Lady Bountiful on top of everything else. And it is doubly and triply infuriating that so many people in the US media and Democratic Party seem to be buying what they’re selling. I don’t just mean that in the metaphorical sense, either. It became clear last fall that the NBA was financially beholden to China and afraid to stand up to that country. But that was just the tip of a huge iceberg. Even the leftist Guardian reported a little over a year ago on the phenomenon:
For decades, Beijing’s approach to shaping its image has been defensive, reactive and largely aimed at a domestic audience. The most visible manifestation of these efforts was the literal disappearance of content inside China: foreign magazines with pages ripped out, or the BBC news flickering to black when it aired stories on sensitive issues such as Tibet, Taiwan or the Tiananmen killings of 1989. Beijing’s crude tools were domestic censorship, official complaints to news organisations’ headquarters and expelling correspondents from China.
But over the past decade or so, China has rolled out a more sophisticated and assertive strategy, which is increasingly aimed at international audiences. China is trying to reshape the global information environment with massive infusions of money – funding paid-for advertorials, sponsored journalistic coverage and heavily massaged positive messages from boosters. While within China the press is increasingly tightly controlled, abroad Beijing has sought to exploit the vulnerabilities of the free press to its advantage.
In its simplest form, this involves paying for Chinese propaganda supplements to appear in dozens of respected international publications such as the Washington Post. The strategy can also take more insidious forms, such as planting content from the state-run radio station, China Radio International (CRI), on to the airwaves of ostensibly independent broadcasters across the world, from Australia to Turkey.
Meanwhile, in the US, lobbyists paid by Chinese-backed institutions are cultivating vocal supporters known as “third-party spokespeople” to deliver Beijing’s message, and working to sway popular perceptions of Chinese rule in Tibet. China is also wooing journalists from around the world with all-expenses-paid tours and, perhaps most ambitiously of all, free graduate degrees in communication, training scores of foreign reporters each year to “tell China’s story well”.
Please read the whole thing.
[NOTE: And don’t forget Joe Biden and China.]
Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley are both intent on crafting some kind of legislation which will hold China to account for having unleashed this plague upon the world; whether it turns out that the virus spread from animal to human in one of the odious “wet markets” or perhaps was allowed to escape from a virology lab in Wuhan is irrelevant to the fact of China’s culpability, and the existence of so many useful idiots in the MSM happily spreading Beijing’s propaganda is beyond shameful.
Long past time to toss the CCP back into the dustbin of history. They can never be trusted to not lie, cheat, and steal.
Communism = Image over substance… (feelings over facts)
Capitalism = Substance and facts creating Image
(if not, they are cheating, and cheating is not a part of capitalism. thinking otherwise is quite erroneous as mutual beneficial exchange, is not happening if one party is cheating)
[western socialists who support communists are erroneous in thinking that somehow this horrid system would assist them in birthing a better one, or a working one, that is less exploitative and wasteful of the means of production (people)? There is no force within it to allow such a change, and there is such benefit to the few who abide by its ways and benefits insulated from the pain, and materialism]
I wouldn’t yet go so far into conspiracy theory as to claim China spread the virus intentionally. But there can be little doubt that once it broke out the sole concern of the CCP was to protect its own interests and power. They don’t give a damn about the lives of their own citizens let alone anyone else’s.
FOAF:
Agreed.
FOAF,
I am NOT saying the CCP spread COVID19 intentionally. Why do you jump to that conclusion? However, the CCP has a long history of lie, cheat, and steal. That is undeniable.
I’m not clear on how the PRC could ‘force’ Italy to buy back that equipment. Can someone explain? I went to the link to that article from the New York Times, from which I normally isolate myself quite strictly, but I really was hoping it would provide some sort of answer to that question; it did not seem to.
If it’s simply a question of the PRC not giving it back unless Italy were to pony up, that would certainly be straightforward, but I just want to make sure there isn’t something more to the story.
My Beijing born wife, and all of her Chinese born friends here, all belong to several WeChat groups – like a family group, a middle school. group, a workplace group, etc. Something like the Trump divide here is going on in these groups. The Chinese who are here – and most have been here 20-30 years – are sometimes leaving the groups in disgust due to the gloating going on by others in the group. Mostly, but not totally, the gloaters are those in China.
My wife says all that is going on is right out of the CCP playbook – nothing new.
And my thought is that the Asian countries (Taiwan, S. Korea, Singapore) that have responded pretty well to the virus may have done so to some extent because they are very, very clear about their Mainland Chinese cousins, with its single mouthpiece news agency. Unlike many folks in the West.
In talking about China with my wife and her friends . . . they agree that something like 10-15% of Chinese are quite aware of the propaganda lies that Chinese news spew. That leaves 85-90% who eat it up. And never doubt how much Chinese pride comes into play. Chinese want so much to believe in the superiority of their culture and civilization (with the backdrop of the century of humiliation) that they are willing consumers of any news that reflects well on China AND reflects poorly on America. They love to hear that! And Chinese propaganda on the virus and how wonderfully China has come through and how poorly the West is coming through is candy for them.
FOAF,
My working theory is, once China realized just what it was going to do to their own country, and that they couldn’t stop it, they decided it was best to let it hit everyone. Let thousands/millions go and infect everyone else too.
Communists always default to their own twisted brand of theoretical “equality” by grinding everyone down to the same level. They just applied that to this problem.
“A senior Trump administration official tells The Spectator that it is much worse than that: China forced Italy to buy back the PPE supply that it gave to China during the initial coronavirus outbreak.”
— cited by neo
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”
— Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2fbj3hepoE
M Williams:
But if the disease continues to ravage China itself, at some point won’t word get out to the 85%? I suppose it depends on how bad it gets and how geographically widespread.
…if the disease continues..
Automatic response is smother it with my pillow.
Sorry for the confusion but I was not addressing you, parker, only expressing my own thoughts. I added the word “yet” because I would not rule it out 100%.
This is very much what the Soviet Union did in its later decades (say 1970 through 1990). I’m reading Vladimir Bukovsky’s “Judgement in Moscow” which details how the Soviet’s planned in detail their propaganda, even picking out the stooges in western countries to repeat what they wanted them to say. The book was published in Russian around 1995, but only last year was issued in English (with an extra section on new developments). Bukovsky had been imprisoned in the 1960s, was allowed to leave the S.U. in the late 1970s, and came back after the S.U. collapsed and started reading documents in the Soviet archives. He couldn’t take them, but he brought a laptop and a scanner! He got thousands of documents and cites many of them in his book. I recommend it highly.
FR: Very plausible. My understanding is that as late as mid-January they were claiming there was no “human-to-human” transmission though they had to have known otherwise by then. The best case is that the CCP simply did not care whether it spread outside China. Then to knowingly withholding information that could have helped and then to actively spreading it. Not really much difference between the last two.
There is an excellent article by Jim Geraghty in NR suggesting the virus may have come from the bio lab near Wuhan though not necessarily on purpose:
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/all-signs-point-to-china/
Maximum of research, minimum of political posturing.
What are the chances?
According to reports by Chinese medical researchers themselves, a Chinese virus research laboratory–located less than 900 feet from the “wetmarket” in Wuhan–is using hundreds of a particular species of bat, that is not native to the area, but whose genetic profile makes it more than 90% likely that it is the source of the Chinese Coronavirus, to research Coronaviruses.
Yet, various MSM sources are saying that it would be a “wild conspiracy theory” to consider this laboratory to be a good candidate as the source of the Chinese Cornonavirus that first manifested itself in Wuhan.
“Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley are both intent on crafting some kind of legislation which will hold China to account for having unleashed this plague upon the world” je
They’ll never get the votes for anything substantial from that pack of clowns and knaves.
“Chinese want so much to believe in the superiority of their culture and civilization (with the backdrop of the century of humiliation) that they are willing consumers of any news that reflects well on China AND reflects poorly on America.” M Williams
Deep insecurity and overcompensation are two sides of the same coin. They apply to nations as well as individuals.
FOAF,
I too think it highly likely that Covid-19 was accidentally released. As a bio-weapon its far from ready for prime time. And an intentional release would have been counter-productive, as the West will be from this point on, far better prepared to deal with a pandemic.
You know what? The reporters and news agencies that have actually been cultivated and groomed by the Chinese government? I’m not that outraged. It’s the way Great Power politics is played and if we let China get away with it, that’s our fault.
But the ones who are parroting China’s line just because #OrangeManBad? Screw those guys. CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, the Associated Press. They’ve spent the last three years in a pissing match to prove THEY are the ones in charge, not the President or the system which put him into office.
Mike
Just heard today on the Daily Briefing that China was sending us PPE & ventilators, etc (IIRC, we donated lots of the same to them back in the beginning when everyone thought — because CCP lied — that it was just a bad flu over there).
I hope our FDA, which so rigorously defends us from pharmacists daring to make hand sanitizer gel without approval, will TEST everything that arrives to make sure it is neither defective nor malicious.
Lawsuits for damages relating to the Wuhan virus should be filed against nearly every Chinese owned business operating in the United States. Since they are controlled by the CCP/PLA, they share liability.
Artfldgr on April 6, 2020 at 5:03 pm said:
Communism = Image over substance… (feelings over facts)
Capitalism = Substance and facts creating Image
(if not, they are cheating, and cheating is not a part of capitalism.
* * *
Nicely summarized.
Remember that reporter at the briefing today who said she worked for an independent paper in Hong Kong?
CTH say she lied.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/04/06/abcs-jonathan-karl-invites-chinese-communist-party-to-attend-white-house-coronavirus-briefing/
Serious question:
Do ventilators get used up? Are they one-patient then throw away?
Because if they don’t and they’re durable goods, then in a couple months the price is going to drop like a stone. Hmm, maybe someone should buy up a zillion of them and put them in a warehouse somewhere for next time. And tell the FDA to go jump if they want to stamp an expiration date on them.
From the things I’ve heard mentioned, depending on their complexity, ventilators are now going for around $20K to $50K each. The key circuit board is imported from China, and I’ve seen at least one story saying that the Chinese are currently not exporting these boards to the U.S. in the numbers they used to.
Whether, after using one of these ventilators to treat a Chinese Coronavirus patient, you can easily and with confidence say that you have completely disinfected it, and it’s ready to be used on the next patient, may be another story entirely.
I’d assume that all of the external components–the tubing, mask and/or perhaps a tracheal tube–are just going to be thrown away, and not “sterilized” and reused, but how and if you can disinfect the components that are in the casing–that may also have been exposed to the Coronavirus–may be an entirely different and harder question.
Roland Hirsch, I agree.. but no one wants to listen to history of the path they are repeating… so history has to repeat… sadly… they do not want to hear that what they are familiar with, and what they were told were goodness, is bad, and sickening… which is why the ‘soviets’ keep the sickness out much to the west being appalled at their behavior… like feminism.. its boxed up and neutered, because it causes population decline to death if not.. they know it as it happened their first…
but we love and believe in blood letting.. and importing people to replace those who didn’t have children… Hitler would have been much more successful if he just got the Jews to self exterminate over time and was patient… orders of magnitude more successful and safer, he would have been hailed a hero not a villain… just as all the heroes of the ladies movement are…
Now its kind of catching on if you watch TEDx talks… there are a bunch of them that would blow women away, but they are not the ones they want to watch. and even those still love blood letting
took over 200 years to stop it… and the harm had to be so common and easy to see… but with demographic changes like this, its too late if you notice it… 80% of the sucides are men, but we dont care… men are the enemy… of those the majority of white males… so the plan is working… isnt it?
do it slowly, and no one cares
do it fast, and they react…
we have a time preference for action…
the sleeping tiger would continue to sleep till dead if you dont do it fast enough
Sadly…
Some lessons you dont survive to learn from – you can only learn from others, which you cant do if you ignore it and say your different…
Bryan Lovely i made that point before… ie. buy puts, sell calls, or short…
but timing is the key…
We can all do our part here.
When in the shoe store, or hardware store, or whatever store, LOOK at the label. If it says ‘Made in China’, put it back on the shelf. Do NOT buy Chinese. Teach them the meaning of the word ‘boycott’.
David–We have always had dogs, and given the reports a couple of years ago of some dog food made in China that was sickening and/or killing dogs, we no longer buy any products for dogs made in China.
You might also notice that, if you go to the big box pet stores like Petsmart, Petco, or the like, almost all of the (mostly cheap) dog toys are also made in China.
Since we have no idea what these toys are really made of, or how concerned Chinese manufacturers might be with producing products that are truly non-toxic, or otherwise safe, we also steer clear of them as well.
P.S.-Looking carefully at all the labels–sometimes it’s shouted–but fairly often you really have to scrutinize all of the toy’s packaging, and look for out of the way fine print, to determine just where a dog toy was manufactured.
It’s actually fairly hard to find pet toys that are not made in China, and if you do find one here or there, they are usually a lot more expensive than the Chinese crap.
Any retaliation against Communist China for how they have dealt with the Coronavirus that originated in their country and, then, how they have dissembled, and dealt with the rest of the world–for the world-wide sickness, the death, and the economic and social disruption that their deliberate actions caused or greatly magnified–needs to have several components.
First, governments around the world have to encourage the repatriation of their companies, manufacturing capabilities, and capital, back to their countries from China, so that customers in their countries can again have products made in those countries for those country’s citizens to buy.
Second, citizens in those countries have to make conscious decisions to refuse to buy any products made in China and, instead, to buy products made in their respective countries, made in some country other than China, or just have to do without.
P.S.–Last night on Tucker Carlson frequent guest, China expert Gordon Chang, suggested, as fitting punishment for China, that the U.S. and all of the other countries in the world should get together, and as a group repudiate whatever of their debt is held by China.
Bryan Lovely:
In one of his press conferences, Trump mentioned that later the price will go way down.