6 ms·

He also sent similar to Iran, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Spain - which makes it look a little less so, at least to my eye.

by soneil 7y ago

maest 7y ago
It's amazing how much impact leaving this information out has.
- soneil 7y ago
  Indeed. 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 ago
    Translates fairy well i think - though Americans will usually say “dick waving” instead. When two are competing it is a pissing contest.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 7y ago
    I’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 ago
  It'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.
  - _bxg1 7y ago
    > I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist Often ideas that might fall into conspiracy territory with most governments are actually pretty realistic when it comes to the CCP.
  - fspeech 7y ago
    They officially aided Italy, Iran, Iraq and others with material and medical teams.
  - scotty79 7y ago
    That's such amazingly american way of thinking. Like straight from cold war.
    - meowface 7y ago
      Is it? If the American government were doing this, I would think the exact same thing. And America has in fact done similar things many times in the past. Of course it's PR. It's always PR, probably regardless of what superpower's government is involved. The only difference here is that the Chinese government has more control over and knowledge of what private citizens are doing, so it can be difficult to disentangle private and governmental action.
      - remarkEon 7y ago
        >...so it can be difficult to disentangle private and governmental action. It's near impossible to disentangle private and government[al] action in China. It's also not a uniquely American way to think about it. Every country uses private proxies where it makes sense in order to project power.
_bxg1 7y ago
It definitely shifts the message somewhat from "look, the Americans need our help" to "we're prosperous enough to be a world leader", which depending on your perspective may be preferable
TheTylerRose 7y ago
It can be a political move and be sent to many other countries as well. That makes it more subtle. Jack Ma is really just a CCP puppet, this is a blatant political move. The US doesn’t even need test kits right now!
01100011 7y ago
I've noticed China is promoting the medical response teams they've sent to those countries on WeChat. I don't want to be so cynical that I reduce Chinese goodwill to a propaganda move, but it definitely is good PR.
- FpUser 7y ago
  If somebody helps me out of the potentially deadly hole, I do not give a flying feck about the motives. And that somebody can have all the good PR s/he wants from me as a token of appreciation.
  - alisonatwork 7y ago
    The CPC are the ones who dug the deadly hole in the first place. It's great that one of their billionaire members has some money to spare to help people out, but let's not forget they are directly responsible for this pandemic.
    - FpUser 7y ago
      Yeah right, they had willfully concocted the virus and diligently sprayed it all around on their streets. It is very convenient blaming your adversaries/competitors for your own f..ups. We could've easily shut the borders at first sign and be protected and safe. Have somebody to blame for that hole?
      - alisonatwork 7y ago
        Plenty of other governments have made mistakes in dealing with this outbreak, but that does not absolve the CPC from responsibility. The CPC knew about this virus for over a month before they took any action to contain it. In fact, they arrested people who were sounding the alarm. Xi is claimed to have been steering the ship for weeks before any lockdowns were put into place in Hubei province. The CPC own this global crisis. If it was not for their epic mismanagement, there would not be a pandemic.
remarkEon 7y ago
>Iran Potential Chinese client state >Italy https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47679760 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47679760 Italy joins China's New Silk Road project >Japan Par East Asia competition and nose thumbing >SK Ibid. >Spain "Does the EU really mean anything to you in times of crisis?" It's the usual astute PRC maneuvering.

He also sent similar to Iran, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Spain - which makes it look a little less so, at least to my eye.

by soneil 7y ago

He 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 ago

It's amazing how much impact leaving this information out has.

soneil 7y ago
Indeed. 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 ago
  Translates fairy well i think - though Americans will usually say “dick waving” instead. When two are competing it is a pissing contest.
- 2muchcoffeeman 7y ago
  I’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 ago
It'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.
- _bxg1 7y ago
  > I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist Often ideas that might fall into conspiracy territory with most governments are actually pretty realistic when it comes to the CCP.
- fspeech 7y ago
  They officially aided Italy, Iran, Iraq and others with material and medical teams.
- scotty79 7y ago
  That's such amazingly american way of thinking. Like straight from cold war.
  - meowface 7y ago
    Is it? If the American government were doing this, I would think the exact same thing. And America has in fact done similar things many times in the past. Of course it's PR. It's always PR, probably regardless of what superpower's government is involved. The only difference here is that the Chinese government has more control over and knowledge of what private citizens are doing, so it can be difficult to disentangle private and governmental action.
    - remarkEon 7y ago
      >...so it can be difficult to disentangle private and governmental action. It's near impossible to disentangle private and government[al] action in China. It's also not a uniquely American way to think about it. Every country uses private proxies where it makes sense in order to project power.

_bxg1 7y ago

It definitely shifts the message somewhat from "look, the Americans need our help" to "we're prosperous enough to be a world leader", which depending on your perspective may be preferable

TheTylerRose 7y ago

It can be a political move and be sent to many other countries as well. That makes it more subtle. Jack Ma is really just a CCP puppet, this is a blatant political move. The US doesn’t even need test kits right now!

01100011 7y ago

I've noticed China is promoting the medical response teams they've sent to those countries on WeChat. I don't want to be so cynical that I reduce Chinese goodwill to a propaganda move, but it definitely is good PR.

FpUser 7y ago
If somebody helps me out of the potentially deadly hole, I do not give a flying feck about the motives. And that somebody can have all the good PR s/he wants from me as a token of appreciation.
- alisonatwork 7y ago
  The CPC are the ones who dug the deadly hole in the first place. It's great that one of their billionaire members has some money to spare to help people out, but let's not forget they are directly responsible for this pandemic.
  - FpUser 7y ago
    Yeah right, they had willfully concocted the virus and diligently sprayed it all around on their streets. It is very convenient blaming your adversaries/competitors for your own f..ups. We could've easily shut the borders at first sign and be protected and safe. Have somebody to blame for that hole?
    - alisonatwork 7y ago
      Plenty of other governments have made mistakes in dealing with this outbreak, but that does not absolve the CPC from responsibility. The CPC knew about this virus for over a month before they took any action to contain it. In fact, they arrested people who were sounding the alarm. Xi is claimed to have been steering the ship for weeks before any lockdowns were put into place in Hubei province. The CPC own this global crisis. If it was not for their epic mismanagement, there would not be a pandemic.

remarkEon 7y ago

>Iran Potential Chinese client state >Italy https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47679760 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47679760 Italy joins China's New Silk Road project >Japan Par East Asia competition and nose thumbing >SK Ibid. >Spain "Does the EU really mean anything to you in times of crisis?" It's the usual astute PRC maneuvering.