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You are again talking about what they say. When they were saying in January there was no evidence, that didn't mean they were thinking it. I'm talking about what they do - all my posts since yesterday have been about what they do.

A comment. If we question not what authorities say but what they think and believe, then we have effectively challenged what any country, West or East, is doing about this virus. Because there is no clairvoyance. None of us knows what will really happen, only what we think may happen based on information we have. So what the Chinese have done in Wuhan reflects what they think. What they think is no better, but also no worse, than what Governments from the US to the UK to various European Governments think - just making the best guess based on information and analysis available. In this, the Chinese are in the same boat. They just may be more opaque in conveying what they think than the West, but as I pointed out above, some information is conveyed just by their actions.

What they do and say are entwined. There's not much of a dichotomy.
But yet the US and other countries are taken to task for not being prepared for this virus which Chinese officials AND the WHO were assuring us was no cause for alarm. In fact, that's action and deed combined. It was deemed to be racist and xenophobic to impose travel restrictions. Public officials in NYC were encouraging everyone to get out and about. The media -- and not just "right wing" media -- were telling us we had more to fear from the flu.

What? Of course there is a dichotomy if you are saying that they lied. Because they imposed an 11 week lockdown on Wuhan after saying there was nothing going on. If what they said was that there was nothing happening but what they did showed they feared something was happening, isn't that a dichotomy? But now, I agree that they are saying that they have it under control and their actions do reflect this by releasing the 11-week lockdown, so there's less dichotomy in the Chinese today between what they say and what they do.

^ sorry, "action and word" combined

The cat was out of the bag by that time. Look, any state, but especially an authoritarian one, has got to at least put up the appearances of being "in control". The situation in Wuhan with lockdown or lifting the lockdown may mean very little. It could mean the CCP doesn't know what it's doing, or isn't really equipped to handle it. It could mean they'd sacrifice the entire city if it meant holding on to power. It wouldn't be the first historical example. I'm not going to sit here and say that their words OR actions mean diddly-squat in relation to reality.

Not surprising, given the traffic in and out of the country.

While countries are debating how far quarantine should go and whether wearing masks would slow the spread of the virus, here is the latest stats on the infected numbers. Looks like the US is on top of the list:

By the way, is there anybody out there that believes there are fewer cases in China than in France? Come on.

Comparing China and France is maybe difficult. The countries are too different in terms of openness and so on. What I find really striking is that there are about as many infected in France and in Germany, but ten times as many casualties in France. One interpretation is that this may mean that there are actually also ten times as many infected in France. So, maybe the numbers from China are quite a bit off, but also other countries seem to over- or underestimate substantially, or differ in how or what they count.

You think it's really possible that Xi Jingping decided to sacrifice the entire province of Hubei, in which Wuhan is located? Where are the quarantines around Hubei? Or are you speculating that Xi Jingping might be trying to sacrifice the entire country of China to hold onto power? Wow. That would be the very definition of Pyrrhic victory. You are grasping at straws, Sir. You can ignore their actions. This is like ignore the world around. Feel free to do so. I'm going to check out of this discussion now as it has gotten silly.

What makes you think it's impossible? The CCP's record of benevolence? And yeah, I'll check out as well since it's getting unavoidably political.

This thread is done.