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Seems like a power move to me. Painting a picture for the world of struggling U.S. institutions needing a Chinese billionaire's help to weather a crisis. I'm n
by _bxg1 7y ago
Seems like a power move to me. Painting a picture for the world of struggling U.S. institutions needing a Chinese billionaire's help to weather a crisis.
I'm not even sure it's incorrect.
- remarkEon 7y agoYeah, it's a reminder of where we shipped our industrial capacity (both real and human).
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- spectramax 7y agoJack Ma cannot be trusted. He swings high and low, doesn't know where the ball is. He once hit a Alibaba home run and thinks he is a hotshot. It's hard to trust Jack Ma with undertones of the CCP propaganda in this humanitarian aid. Elon and Jack Ma debates in Shanghai, just listen this guy talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3lUEnMaiAU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3lUEnMaiAU Edit: I am not defending the United States. Just look at what our president said this afternoon. Couldn't even string a cohesive sentence together. If Jack Ma is genuine and wants to help - who knows? To me it feels like a huge power move as the OP said - it feels "correct" to me. This news is trending big time on Twitter.
- _bxg1 7y agoThat hardly seems like the point, does it?
- derision 7y agoNot the commenter you're replying to, but I think that's exactly the point actually
- spectramax 7y agoI think so, if we are talking about Jack Ma, don't you think?
- 8note 7y agoisn't that the same for all billionaires? got a big hit and think a bit too highly of themselves now, and given far more power than they deserve?
- 737min 7y agoJack Ma is close to Chinese PLA. It’s a national security threat.
- scotty79 7y agoNational security threat is US military not owning aircraft carrier worth of medical supplies while at the same time owning multiple actual aircraft carriers.
- tomohawk 7y agoIf the government in China had handled the problem, it sure would have saved the whole world a lot of trouble. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/wuhan-doctors-say-colleagues-died-in-vain-amid-official-cover-up https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/wuhan-doctors-sa...
- ISL 7y agoWith great power comes great responsibility. This is a global adversary, and a global response is required. Perhaps when we dance this dance again, global health expertise and transparency will be the default from the beginning.
- tmotwu 7y agoBecause thats what matters to you? Were europeans sending aid to China a power move? It’s acceptable to send aid to each other, no matter who you appear to represent.
- brrrrr1 7y agowhat help specifically were europeans sending to china, other than racist blunders and loads of ignorance of their problem?
- soneil 7y agoChina appear to be making special efforts to send whatever they can to Italy, in recognition of Italy going above and beyond in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan 'quake. For all that's going wrong lately, it's not a bad thing to see, I think.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- buonanotteciao 7y agoThat's just propaganda. "China is not helping us, they are justing making propaganda for their people. All they did was sending 9 doctors and shipping masks that we had to PAY for. No gifts, no true donations." https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/comments/fhyayr/italian_here_dont_trust_the_chinese_propaganda/ https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/comments/fhyayr/italian_h...
- mdgrech23 7y agoFound the Chinese bot.
- _bxg1 7y agoThere is no "appear". China's capitalist leaders are in the pocket of the CCP, whether they want to be or not. I'm not saying it's unacceptable, I'm saying that China and the U.S. are direct rivals in a way that China and Europe are not, and that it will appear a certain way to the world, and that the way it appears will be advantageous to the CCP.
- hawk_ 7y agoIt's concerted effort by Chinese establishment to whitewash their handling of the whole thing. They even want to pretend that the virus didn't even originate in China! https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/13/asia/china-coronavirus-us-lijian-zhao-intl-hnk/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/13/asia/china-coronavirus-us...
- guardiangod 7y agoYou should see what some of my Chinese relatives/friends are forwarding in WeChat- 1. CIA created the virus and released the virus in China as a test. 2. (In Chinese there's no word for 'flu', only 'cold', or 'transmissible cold'.) The 'cold' virus originated in US last year and killed more than 10k Americans before US sent special force to Wuhan to infect us Chinese! Even the head of CDC admitted it (see article). 3. A 5 member US special force went to Wuhan in November. They returned to US and all died in suspicious circumstances. 4. Now all the western countries are sending infected agents into China to blow the epidemic again. You might notice a common theme that US is the enemy, and they are the originator of all bad things that happened to China. This is not a coincidence.
- sieabahlpark 7y agoThat's probably exactly what China wants it's population to believe.
- knzhou 7y agoSigh. Each dumb conspiracy theory in Chinese social media has an equal and opposite dumb conspiracy theory in American social media.
- taiwanboy 7y agoThe CIA rumour is no less raised by the CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY spokesman https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-official-says-us-army-maybe-brought-coronavirus-to-wuhan-2020-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-official-says-us-arm...
- soneil 7y agoHe also sent similar to Iran, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Spain - which makes it look a little less so, at least to my eye.
- maest 7y agoIt's amazing how much impact leaving this information out has.
- soneil 7y agoIndeed. On it's own, it looks like .. I'm not sure "willy-waving" translates into American well. But once you realise they're sending them everywhere, it makes it look more like they've ramped production up to stupifying numbers (which is China's speciality afterall), and have realised their value in goodwill is far beyond their dollar value. (or, yes, propaganda - there's not a lot of real difference between PR, propaganda and goodwill. Ultimately, doing something good because the optics benefit you, is still doing something good.)
- jchw 7y agoTranslates fairy well i think - though Americans will usually say “dick waving” instead. When two are competing it is a pissing contest.
- 2muchcoffeeman 7y agoI’m sure it helps that doing something good also makes them look good and shifts public perception of China from oppressive to we just helped save the world from an epidemic. There’s no way the leadership has thought out all the angles.
- untog 7y ago> I'm not sure "willy-waving" translates into American well. The translation you are looking for is "dick swinging" :)
- meowface 7y agoIt's still a power move. Just a global one. I have no doubt his intention really is to save lives, but a secondary motive is surely also PR. Perhaps the Chinese state had some role in this, as well. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I could see a possible benign conspiracy like them using Jack as a proxy to distribute these. If they did it officially, it could be trusted less and the motive would seem more blatant. And Jack of course has enough money to do this himself, but such a big international move might require the approval of the government.
- celticninja 7y agoThe Chinese are people like you and me. Yes their government needs a lot of work, but people are people and we need to remember that more.
- grecy 7y agoI'm not American or Chinese, so I read your statement as: The American are people like you and me. Yes their government needs a lot of work, but people are people and we need to remember that more
- bamboozled 7y agoIncredibly well said
- celticninja 7y agoI am neither American or Chinese either, I have no idea what point you are trying to make.
- bamboozled 7y agoThey are essentially saying, both governments need a lot of work.
- _bxg1 7y agoSure, but there's no way one of their billionaires would be allowed to take an action like this without discussing it with the CCP first. For all we know it was their idea. I'm not saying it's evil or that we shouldn't accept it, I'm just observing the optics and the fact that there's no way the CCP didn't consider it from this perspective beforehand, regardless of any other motives.
- justicezyx 7y agoThat's definitely the case. Powerful people have their sphere. They cannot just doing things without staying in their community. But that's not a novel conclusion, humans are social animals...
- taiwanboy 7y agoUS ability to make and distribute medicine and medical supplies is falling apart and it’s a direct result of consolidation of supply chain and factories that make it. 4 power buyers buys control over 90% of generic drug for US. And probably similar percent for medical equipments. Good news is that now all eyes are on the medical supply chains, and introduction of the medical supply drug act bill, we should see some supply chain move back to US. Especially since Chinese government has threatened to withhold drug supplies to US https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/coronavirus-china-us-drugs-trump-rubio-china-virus-xinhua-hell-epidemic-a9400811.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic... and has started a disinformation campaign suggesting US inserted coronavirus in Wuhan, brought up by the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-official-says-us-army-maybe-brought-coronavirus-to-wuhan-2020-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-official-says-us-arm...
- avip 7y agoThis comment could be a-priori applied to any "Bob sends aid to Alice" case?
- vlunkr 7y agoExactly. Any time a wealthy person contributes to a good cause people have to start deciding what the alterior motives are.
- o_p 7y agoYeah China bad USA good. If anything China has done much more to contain the virus.
- spectramax 7y agoTruth. They're using drones to following people and ask them to go back into their homes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPw6xjwAlHc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPw6xjwAlHc With complete lack of freedom and privacy, you can achieve a lot. They're doing better than any western country would: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-china-slowed-coronavirus-lockdowns-surveillance-enforcers-11583868093 https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-china-slowed-coronavirus-lo...
- o_p 7y agoThe right of free transit have been denied in every country with enough infections, why would you particularly demonize China for it? You are in quarantine, you cannot leave, period.
- crooked-v 7y agoThe drones seem if anything quite a lot less privacy-intruding than other possible measures, assuming they're just wandering around looking for people without masks. It would be embarrassing to be on the receiving end but with no real lasting effect or privacy loss, which is ultimately a pretty ideal result on a societal level.
- 7y ago
- mnm1 7y agoPainting? That's the reality, The US response is a disaster that will likely surpass Italy. We have done close to nothing. Maybe he's trying to help because we are too fucking incompetent to test on our own. The question is, will the US take the help or be the too proud asshole it's always been and ignore it like they did with the WHO test?
- blihp 7y agoNo one needs to paint a picture of our institutions struggling to the world... we've been doing a fine job of that ourselves. Had a U.S. company made the same gesture to another country, our media would be covering it as humanitarian aid or building goodwill. The fact is that we currently have an inadequate supply of masks and test kits so I think an appropriate response would be 'thank you' regardless of any potentially less than altruistic motives.
- pedroma 7y agoChina has rejected aid before from certain entities/countries. They obviously view foreign aid as a power move.
- elliotec 7y agoWhat an awful take. This is charity. Don't be such a cynic, especially when people do good things. We need more of that and less skepticism of it.
- jariel 7y agoIt's mostly a nice gesture and good PR. If it was purely humanitarian, there would be no press release, but there's nothing wrong with him getting a thumbs up for this. Most rich guys like to get some 'brownie points' while they give money away, which is fine.
- josephorjoe 7y agoIt is not at all incorrect. For whatever reason, the US lacks the ability and/or the capability of responding effectively to this crisis. The assistance is valuable and should be respected and appreciated accordingly. And if people in the US feel uncomfortable about what this assistance implies about the US -- well, there will be time to consider why that is so and what can be done about it at a future date.
- coenhyde 7y agoUS institutions are struggling! That is reality. Take your ego out of the picture and let Jack Ma save lives.
- m0zg 7y agoBe that as it may, we should accept, and thank him for it. This is not the time for dick measuring contests, and our institutions that were supposed to deal with this (CDC/FDA) have objectively failed.