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Three comments
Posted on: December 19, 2020 at 15:02:07 CT
Knucklehead MU
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First, the head of China's Center for Disease Control reportedly called the head of the US CDC on new year's eve to warn of the then unidentified virus in Wuhan. As far as I know this is not disputed. That preceeds the February 6 date mentioned in the lead paragraph by a month.
Second, with the current Russia hacking hysteria, it is amusing that the documents discussed in the story are described as having been hacked by some shadowy group that no one ever heard of before. To the extent that they are legitimate, they would most likely be the product of US hacking.
So when US hacks good. When we get hacked we cry foul.
To many in the US this is ok. To the rest of the world it is rank hypocracy.
The anti-China story flow seems particularly heavy in the past few days. This is somewhat expected when the US is having serious problems domestically and during a transition from one party to the other in the white house.
For record, I have no doubt that China censors/manages messaging via the media and internet. So do a lot of countries. I am, of course, not in a position to explain China's behavior and readily admit it strikes my western sense of values as wrong. I can speculate on a few factors influencing China's behavior. First it has a population of 1.4 billion people. They may view governing a country of that size as requiring a more authoritarian style. For example, I have heard that there are more than 50 recognized ethnic groups in China.
Second, asian cultures appear to place more value on stability and social cohesion (sorry to resort to stereotypes). Third, China's government went through a long period of decay in the 1800 and then was basically looted by the western colonial powers in the early 1920s and that experience of extreme disorder may have increased the emphasis on maintaining order. Then Japan invaded in a very brutal manner.
The fourth factor is their stage of economic and social development. The final factor would be the expressed hostility of powerful foreign actors. This factor, legitimate or not, is frequently cited by governments as justification for a variety of social controls.
Edited by Knucklehead at 15:48:31 on 12/19/20
Second, with the current Russia hacking hysteria, it is amusing that the documents discussed in the story are described as having been hacked by some shadowy group that no one ever heard of before. To the extent that they are legitimate, they would most likely be the product of US hacking.
So when US hacks good. When we get hacked we cry foul.
To many in the US this is ok. To the rest of the world it is rank hypocracy.
The anti-China story flow seems particularly heavy in the past few days. This is somewhat expected when the US is having serious problems domestically and during a transition from one party to the other in the white house.
For record, I have no doubt that China censors/manages messaging via the media and internet. So do a lot of countries. I am, of course, not in a position to explain China's behavior and readily admit it strikes my western sense of values as wrong. I can speculate on a few factors influencing China's behavior. First it has a population of 1.4 billion people. They may view governing a country of that size as requiring a more authoritarian style. For example, I have heard that there are more than 50 recognized ethnic groups in China.
Second, asian cultures appear to place more value on stability and social cohesion (sorry to resort to stereotypes). Third, China's government went through a long period of decay in the 1800 and then was basically looted by the western colonial powers in the early 1920s and that experience of extreme disorder may have increased the emphasis on maintaining order. Then Japan invaded in a very brutal manner.
The fourth factor is their stage of economic and social development. The final factor would be the expressed hostility of powerful foreign actors. This factor, legitimate or not, is frequently cited by governments as justification for a variety of social controls.
Edited by Knucklehead at 15:48:31 on 12/19/20
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Three comments - Knucklehead MU - 12/19 15:02:07