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Like or dislike the Chinese government, question how much it cares about saving face versus protecting the international community, sure. But name a time since

Like or dislike the Chinese government, question how much it cares about saving face versus protecting the international community, sure. But name a time since the dawn of commercial air travel 1950-2019 where a country, much less the country with the largest population on earth, suspended all air travel for any reason, much less a flu they'd only discovered a few weeks prior. I have my doubts on how many other countries would've isolated their entire population and suspended travel in and out if given the same time line and information. Do you really think if a flu outbreak had been detected in the US that we would have suspended ALL travel in and out of the country in December of 2019 only a few weeks after becoming aware of it? It's been a century since this last happened, no one alive in 2019 really had any memory of such a catastrophe unfolding. I think China would've been called alarmist, totalitarian, and an unreliable business partner, had they taken the full measures of lockdown early enough to possibly prevent it spreading internationally.

atatatat 5y ago
> I have my doubts on how many other countries would've isolated their entire population and suspended travel in and out if given the same time line and information. The rest of society is easily the shittiest thing to peg your morality against.
soonnow 5y ago
I certainly dislike the Chinese government for many reasons, among them the handling of human rights. But I do agree with you on that one. Especially when you look at the actual timeline, where COVID was already unfolding in China and Western countries were still hesitant to do anything. It was a whole month from COVID becoming an non-issue in some far-away place in China to a global poandemic. China was already building field hospitals while the world did nothing.
jimmygrapes 5y ago
You can find echoes of your hypothetical in the laments of those who firmly believe that Trump's response was both inadequate and authoritarian/racist. There is no winning.

atatatat 5y ago

> I have my doubts on how many other countries would've isolated their entire population and suspended travel in and out if given the same time line and information. The rest of society is easily the shittiest thing to peg your morality against.

soonnow 5y ago

I certainly dislike the Chinese government for many reasons, among them the handling of human rights. But I do agree with you on that one. Especially when you look at the actual timeline, where COVID was already unfolding in China and Western countries were still hesitant to do anything. It was a whole month from COVID becoming an non-issue in some far-away place in China to a global poandemic. China was already building field hospitals while the world did nothing.

jimmygrapes 5y ago

You can find echoes of your hypothetical in the laments of those who firmly believe that Trump's response was both inadequate and authoritarian/racist. There is no winning.