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Regarding the argument that the Chinese eat everything including animals they shouldn't be eating:
Funny people never criticize other Asians, Africans and Latin Americans for eating such, from our perspective, exotic animals. In Indonesia, the Congo etc. they have the same kinds of markets and eat similar animals.
Also, all those people don't eat raw bats, they cook them, which destroys bugs.
If people in the West didn't cook their pigs and cows, there would also be huge public health problems as those animals also contain dangerous bugs.
If anything it is a matter of hygiene, which is not as good in rural areas of developing countries obviously. They haven't turned raising and killing animals into the sterile, cold-blooded, industrial-scale mass murder the West has.
No no no.
The theory is not that they were developing a bioweapon (except indeed with some fringe groups, but those same groups also claim that Bill Gates developed the virus), but that China was researching how to manage viruses (ironically) by creating one, and it got loose from the lab. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/polit...lab/index.html
I am not convinced of that myself yet, but some evidence suggest that. It could be true, as lab quality control measures in China might not be as strict as industry standards. It's clear however without a doubt that the virus originated from China - wet market or the aforementioned lab.
The latest from official US 'sources' is that they got a virus from the wild and were studying it. If you look at the timeline for when the horseshoe bat sample from 2003 was studied in January, it is after the pandemic originated. They were trying to identify the disease in the midst of an epidemic. It's too late to claim the lab originated the virus.
You're also not reading the article. They claim that the virus was naturally occurring and the wet markets were not the source. They are trying hard to deny that the virus was engineered because it points back to the NIH program in Chapel Hill.
Everything points to an attempt to blame China and the lab. If the wet markets are blamed, then they can say that it was from an animal caught in the wild, which lets the lab off the hook. The wet markets were also not the first location where the illness occurred. It's more likely that someone went to the markets as well as other locations and spread the disease. It could be lab worker who was infected and went to the markets. But this CIA attempt closes off that scenario.
I think the fact they close off possible scenarios like I have described indicates that this is a poorly organized attempt to shift blame. Since the media will repeat anything the CIA or State Department says without any scrutiny, they can say whatever they want.
Funny how they claim we know the virus was from Wuhan, while there is no proof of that. We only know that the virus spread from there, but not that it originated there.
Anyway, i was just reading on bats as food, and found this funny quote:
"In the Torah and in the Bible, the book of Leviticus (11:13–19) forbids consumption of bat: "These you shall detest among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: (...) the bat.""
"Some media outlets, including Daily Mail and RT, promoted a video that showed a young Chinese woman eating a bat and suggested it was shot in Wuhan, but later it was confirmed that the footage was filmed by travel vlogger Wang Mengyun in the island country of Palau in 2016, to showcase local cuisine."
The latest from official US 'sources' is that they got a virus from the wild and were studying it. If you look at the timeline for when the horseshoe bat sample from 2003 was studied in January, it is after the pandemic originated. They were trying to identify the disease in the midst of an epidemic. It's too late to claim the lab originated the virus.
You're also not reading the article. They claim that the virus was naturally occurring and the wet markets were not the source. They are trying hard to deny that the virus was engineered because it points back to the NIH program in Chapel Hill.
Everything points to an attempt to blame China and the lab. If the wet markets are blamed, then they can say that it was from an animal caught in the wild, which lets the lab off the hook. The wet markets were also not the first location where the illness occurred. It's more likely that someone went to the markets as well as other locations and spread the disease. It could be lab worker who was infected and went to the markets. But this CIA attempt closes off that scenario.
I think the fact they close off possible scenarios like I have described indicates that this is a poorly organized attempt to shift blame. Since the media will repeat anything the CIA or State Department says without any scrutiny, they can say whatever they want.
I read the article. It's from CNN and I was surprised they reported it in the first place, as anti-administration as they are.
Naturally they are skeptical then.
"Natural occuring" means the China wet markets - which I mentioned. So...not sure of your point unless you have another theory. Whatever conclusion there is, clearly China is to blame...but, let's use that term "blame" carefully, I am sure no one in China intended to release a virus with global impact. Blame at this point helps nothing and no one, there is just learning from the crises.
Keep in mind that China itself has generally stuck to the conclusion that it was a naturally-occuring illness which somehoe made the jump from animals to humans and has reacted accordingly, restricting the sale of live animals for food (though the ban is likely quite pourous). The conspiracy theories touted last month were from low-mid officials who were allowed to do so to sow discord and shift blame from China without bringing down the heavy condemnation that would arise from it being declared official Party line, most likely to test the waters, as Western nations typically ignore bombastic propaganda from China. The rebuke from the rest of the world was pretty sharp and so China walked back from it. They need foreign nations to go back to buying from them so they can restart the economy; blaming them for everything is bad policy if this is the goal.
I find the idea that it was released maliciously by any government unlikely, as it would have been plainly obvious that it would impact global economies, not just China's. What purpose would it serve for China to release it domestically? If it had been a US plot, they would have sealed the borders immediately and made sure to put in measures for containment beforehand, such as refunding the CDC and its stockpiles, etc.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday that US intelligence indicates that the coronavirus likely occurred naturally, as opposed to being created in a laboratory in China, but there is no certainty either way.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of President Trump’s pandemic task force, on Friday also rejected suggestions the novel coronavirus was man-made.
During the White House daily briefing, Fauci said, “The mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.”
Fauci cited evolutionary virologists who studied “the sequences there and the sequences in bats as they evolve.”
Zero Hedge has gone even farther out on the ledge by claiming China intentionally targeted it as a bioweapon on the world. There is no benefit to doing it intentionally unless you think the governments you're targeting are weak and subject to collapse under the weight of popular protests. When you look at all the public rhetoric by government officials, think tanks, and pundits, that sort of wishful thinking is usually targeted at China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and other countries seen as rivals to the US.
If it was a biological attack, blowback is probably something that the perpetrators did not plan for. We've seen this in wars against Iraq, Syria, and Libya where they failed adequately to plan for any outcome other than total control. The use of terrorism proxies also backfired.
I read the article. It's from CNN and I was surprised they reported it in the first place, as anti-administration as they are.
Naturally they are skeptical then.
"Natural occuring" means the China wet markets - which I mentioned. So...not sure of your point unless you have another theory. Whatever conclusion there is, clearly China is to blame...but, let's use that term "blame" carefully, I am sure no one in China intended to release a virus with global impact. Blame at this point helps nothing and no one, there is just learning from the crises.
It was not the wet market in Wuhan, that much is already known. Greater Wuhan is not even a bat habitat.
Also, the Chinese are not the only ones that have such markets, they are common in several countries of Asia, but also in parts of Africa and even Australian aborigines have a long history of eating bats. So, why would this epidemic pop up now? Now that the hygiene at wet markets is actually much better than it used to be decades ago
It was not the wet market in Wuhan, that much is already known. Greater Wuhan is not even a bat habitat.
Also, the Chinese are not the only ones that have such markets, they are common in several countries of Asia, but also in parts of Africa and even Australian aborigines have a long history of eating bats. So, why would this epidemic pop up now? Now that the hygiene at wet markets is actually much better than it used to be decades ago
Strange...
Because the west couldn't care less about Malaysia or the Philipines, they even consider Korea and Japan colonies (google the hilarious bit btw where their great orange leader mocks the Korean movie "Parasite" for winning an oscar...). Of course they'll care about China since it's 1.4 billion people and seriously challenges the American/Russian attempt to control the world.
I guess one reason for blaming China prematurely is that the West wants to rip China off. That's why are trying to come up with accusations that China somehow mishandled the epidemic because if it is considered merely a giant, natural accident, there is no chance of demanding money from China.
Keep in mind that China itself has generally stuck to the conclusion that it was a naturally-occuring illness which somehoe made the jump from animals to humans and has reacted accordingly, restricting the sale of live animals for food (though the ban is likely quite pourous). The conspiracy theories touted last month were from low-mid officials who were allowed to do so to sow discord and shift blame from China without bringing down the heavy condemnation that would arise from it being declared official Party line, most likely to test the waters, as Western nations typically ignore bombastic propaganda from China. The rebuke from the rest of the world was pretty sharp and so China walked back from it. They need foreign nations to go back to buying from them so they can restart the economy; blaming them for everything is bad policy if this is the goal.
I find the idea that it was released maliciously by any government unlikely, as it would have been plainly obvious that it would impact global economies, not just China's. What purpose would it serve for China to release it domestically? If it had been a US plot, they would have sealed the borders immediately and made sure to put in measures for containment beforehand, such as refunding the CDC and its stockpiles, etc.
Dude why have you stayed in China? I know you have the two small businesses, but because you bought your place in GZ, do you feel you can continue to ride it out? How long do you really want to live in China? Your wife interested in living in the U.S.?
We left early February, as it just became too much to deal with, esp with two young children. Quarantined in our apartment in GZ, and not being able to see a doctor if one of our kids got sick was our primary concern. After living in China for 20 years, I had mixed feelings about leaving.
How is GZ now? I''ve heard lots of anti-foreigner sentiment. I read so many negative, nasty and racist comments in a couple of Wechate groups I'm in with local Chinese in GZ. It feels like overall there are lots of anti-foreigner attitudes now, esp with all of the propaganda being pumped into the media in China by Xi and his Communist buddies these past couple of years.
Stay safe bud
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