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Thank you for this small window into another world.

• thaumasiotes 7y ago
  Something that stuck with me (from long before the current crisis) was when I asked a friend how she thought Chinese people generally perceived America. The response was much as you'd expect: some people see it as a faraway paradise, some feel pretty negative, many don't really care. But she specifically mentioned one guy from her workplace who fell into the "relentlessly negative" camp, always criticizing America if he got the opportunity. She said even he admitted the US did one good thing that deserved the thanks of the Chinese people. That thing was publishing air pollution numbers based on measurements in American consulates in China. I usually think about this in terms of the apparently huge diplomatic win it presented for very minor effort, but it also says something about the level of trust in the Chinese government pre-crisis.