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I guess Taiwan's inherent mistrust of China helped in making the right decisions - while the thoughts of politicians in the West were something along the lines

by rob74 7y ago

I guess Taiwan's inherent mistrust of China helped in making the right decisions - while the thoughts of politicians in the West were something along the lines of "China is saying it has things under control, the WHO is saying the same, so there is no need for drastic actions right now - and if it turns out later that we were wrong, we can shift the blame to China and the WHO".

robocat 7y ago
Even after China’s (self?)deception became uncovered, most countries still didn’t act effectively, or (even more bizarre) performed their own form of denial. Wasting many weeks of runway, then suddenly discovering an emergency due to lack of foresight. Many citizens knew what was happening, yet somehow our political organisations failed us.
rjzzleep 7y ago
People still blame their own failures on China? In January China was already pumping out article after article on what to do what's happening, who gets sick etc. And the US and Europe were still twiddling their thumbs, the only two countries that reacted right away were Taiwan and Russia. China enacted an export ban on surgical masks and Europeans and Americans were still busy exporting masks to China for a profit. End of January all the pharmacies in Berlin were already out of mask supplies and so were the wholesalers. Yet the German health ministry went on TV saying that all this shows how well Germany is prepared. Go on and keep blaming China for this clusterfuck, but the reality is that the the thing that made this situation explode were the illusions of grandure most governments have. The Iranian health ministry went on TV to tell everyone how great they are. Trump was telling people to go work to become healthy. The severity of the outbreak is directly correlated to the level of narcicism of the countries leaders.
- MR4D 7y ago
  Interesting that the PP got downvoted. While many people blame China (and yes, they made some dumb decisions), most of what I see in the above post is technically correct. For instance, despite having a 2,600 mile border with China, Russia has about the same Covid-19 stats as Iceland. My gut tells me that their decision to close their border early had a huge impact. So yeah, China deserves a lot of blame, but we in the west did not make it any better. The Italian “Hug a Chinese” event in Florence was particularly stupid, and many have paid for it with their lives.

by rob74 7y ago

robocat 7y ago

Even after China’s (self?)deception became uncovered, most countries still didn’t act effectively, or (even more bizarre) performed their own form of denial. Wasting many weeks of runway, then suddenly discovering an emergency due to lack of foresight. Many citizens knew what was happening, yet somehow our political organisations failed us.

rjzzleep 7y ago

People still blame their own failures on China? In January China was already pumping out article after article on what to do what's happening, who gets sick etc. And the US and Europe were still twiddling their thumbs, the only two countries that reacted right away were Taiwan and Russia. China enacted an export ban on surgical masks and Europeans and Americans were still busy exporting masks to China for a profit. End of January all the pharmacies in Berlin were already out of mask supplies and so were the wholesalers. Yet the German health ministry went on TV saying that all this shows how well Germany is prepared. Go on and keep blaming China for this clusterfuck, but the reality is that the the thing that made this situation explode were the illusions of grandure most governments have. The Iranian health ministry went on TV to tell everyone how great they are. Trump was telling people to go work to become healthy. The severity of the outbreak is directly correlated to the level of narcicism of the countries leaders.

MR4D 7y ago
Interesting that the PP got downvoted. While many people blame China (and yes, they made some dumb decisions), most of what I see in the above post is technically correct. For instance, despite having a 2,600 mile border with China, Russia has about the same Covid-19 stats as Iceland. My gut tells me that their decision to close their border early had a huge impact. So yeah, China deserves a lot of blame, but we in the west did not make it any better. The Italian “Hug a Chinese” event in Florence was particularly stupid, and many have paid for it with their lives.