Seriously, I do wonder if there isn’t a strong antipathy against all things Official-Mainland-Chinese/ Chinese Communist Party and all its works building among Americans, in the wake of the almost-universal infection by the Wuhan Corona-virus epidemic. I mean the damn plague started there, despite what all the official CCP agencies and bodies, and their sympathizers and hired media can and will insist. Bungling containment, concealing practically everything about the epidemic (the third devastating epidemic originating in China, by the way, the swine flu and the H1N1 virus being the first two) and then having the unmitigated gall to blame it on the United states that takes the absolute cake, as far as I am concerned. It reminds me of the books I absorbed, growing up; most by English and American authors of the mildly popular sort (some fiction, some non) and dating anywhere in the first half of the 20th century whose detestation of Germany and Germans hung in the atmosphere of those books like a particularly dank fog. It was an almost visceral dislike, for all that we generally had been inclined favorably towards Germany before the turn of the previous century. Martin Luther, Johan Sebastian Bach, the Brothers Grimm, Schumann, Beethoven, Goethe, scientific, technological and medical advances all flowed to the rest of Europe and to the Americas, making us all the richer for it but German ‘frightfulness’ in World War I, and the horrors inflicted by Nazi Germany burned through that enormous fund of respect and favorable opinion, leaving a very bad taste in the mouths of those old enough to have been exposed to them, either directly or at first and second remove. That bad taste may only now be fading with regard to Germany, but I wonder if it isn’t now about to be replaced with burning resentment of China, or at the very least, the Chinese Communist Party.
There is a certain unpleasant track record ‘form’ as our English friends say, regarding Chinese-produced items; until now it may have been somewhat inchoate, unformed but it is there. There was enormous harm done to communities across the US, when manufacturers moved manufacturing of everything from furniture, woven fabric, shoes, clothing, kitchenware, construction steel, computer chips, tools, and pharmaceuticals and so much else … to China. To initial advantage to the industrial bodies involved, because it was cheaper … at first. What doeth it profit us, as a whole, to have cheaper stuff at Target or Walmart … if the long-term result is the gutting of local industries, and the immiseration of working-class communities across the US over the last three or four decades? I wonder if those industries are now seriously recalculating the terms of the deal, in the wake of the Wuhan Corona-virus epidemic. I know that I am. I’d seriously be willing to pay more, for something American-made, which actually lasts. Lasts like consumer goods used to do, instead of being cheap and good for only a year or two … or less.
There are other indicia, along this vein: rumblings on various threads over the last couple of months; that American companies having goods manufactured in China were getting massively ripped off; counterfeit goods manufactured by the same factory licensed to produce the genuine article and sold under the legitimate brand, corners cut … all kinds of underhanded dealing, this averred by people trusted, and long-time commenters who claimed first-hand knowledge through experience. Since I have never met any of these commentators face to face or have first-hand knowledge of their experience and qualifications, it’s a matter of faith on my part, to accept their statements. But I’ve been swimming in the pools of the internet since 2001; I believe I am a pretty fair judge of ripples and tendencies. This trend is a bit … worrisome. It was not a good thing, considered in retrospect, to hand over a great deal of our manufacturing capability to parties that we really could not trust. The startling realization that the Chinese authorities are perfectly willing to embargo pharmaceuticals, and things like surgical masks to American markets that is an unwelcome eye-opener. Also, a knife at our collective throat. They that have power must be seen to exercise it, now and again. To encourage the others, you see.
A good bit ago I think it was after the forced landing and sequestration of a US Navy P-3 Orion I made a good effort to try and find non-Chinese-manufactured items, with only mixed results in the general marketplace. OK, then. Then there was the contaminated pet-food thing; it seemed that certain brands of pet food sourced from China had been boosted with an extra-added-secret ingredient … which killed dogs and cats fed it. And that was when I began to buy only US-sourced pet food. For extra measure, I passed on imported sea food or indeed, just about any food item sourced from China as well; if they would put dangerous crap in pet food, and cheerfully sell contaminated infant formula, what else would get into in food items for a profit? Only Texas-local for this family, especially after I read about steamed buns filled with cardboard and God knows what else. On another occasion actually, several of them The Gentleman With Whom I Kept Company for more than a decade and I went to a good few swap meets, looking for bargains. He was on a search for American-made tools; wrenches, screwdrivers and the like. Basic stuff, you would think. The Gentleman averred that most everything available in this depressing modern day was made in China, and it was absolute crap.
Additional indicators, of an unpleasantly authoritarian nature; small things, in the main, hitting the entertainment industrial complex where they live. Speaking out in support of Tibet as an independent entity seems to have cost Richard Gere professionally. It’s telling that the American manufacturers of big block-buster movies look more towards seeing that those movies appeal to a Chinese audience than an American one. Persecution of Christians, Falun Gongists, of the Hong Kong democracy protesters, of the Uighur minority … all of this and more is just another brick in the wall of distrust and dislike. Discuss as you wish.
I agree with what you wrote about American self-sufficiency 100%. When we remodeled our kitchen, we had two requirements (1) no wifi / “smart” appliances, and (2) nothing that wasn’t entirely built in the US. I don’t need a sink made from radioactive steel recycled and old surgical tools — found only 1 sink from US company made in US using US-sourced steel. Yep, it cost some more. Worth it in my view.
Since the conversation you describe is going to happen, though, 2 other points: (1) My daughter is Chinese (Hunan province, and (2) despite Chicago-level corruption, Taiwan is different. We should get into the habit, when expressing your points, of saying occasionally “PRC,” “Chicom” (Rush does that) or “mainland.” My grandpa told me about growing up when Germans became Huns and he was living in a mixed German-American and English-American community. It wasn’t all that nice. And it’s a bit easier to get through the inevitable “racist” b.s. that depends on the fact that “Chinese” might mean Chicom, or it might mean something else. I know what you meant, but a kid out of college who’s wondering why he or she can’t get a job (add “visa” to “China” concerns) has been trained by Dr. Pavolv to not notice the difference.
The Wuhan flu is the last draw. I used to source OEM equipment from China and often ordered CNC-machined components. I’m not going to lie. They were cheap. Like 1/4 to 1/10 the price of domestic sources cheap.
Then one day I opened a box that smelled like formaldehyde. Actually, “smelled” doesn’t do it justice. You could have embalmed a horse with the odor wafting out of this package. Their materials must’ve spent some time in a toxic waste dump. I threw it all out, ventilated and deodorized the whole area, and never ordered anything from China again.
It’s scary now to think of medical supplies made in China. Ventilators, masks, etc. Does they FDA test for residual toxins on those things?
Celia, you make excellent points and Joe did, too.
My uncle told me that when he was a child in Chicago, there were portraits of the Kaiser in public schools. Much of the Midwest was settled by German immigrants in the 19th century. Lincoln put Edward Bates in his cabinet to attract the votes of the Germans of Missouri.
China had a large residual of good will in this country going back to WWII and the missionary families like that of Henry Luce who grew up there. The 1950 communist successful revolution led to much political recrimination over “Who lost China.” The CCP has squandered that and what is left is directed to Taiwan. China has had serious problems with counterfeits and quality control all along. Who buys a Chinese car ? The Japanese may well be surviving this plague because of their personal cleanliness and culture. The cool relations seem to be serving Japan far better than the close relations between China and Italy. There are thousands of Chinese workers in Italy to justify the “Made in Italy” labels on much of the Italian luxury trade. The Italian PM made much of the “racism ” of Trump’s ban on Chinese flights while Italy had a “Hug a Chinese” day.
Bush I ignored Tiananmen Square atrocity and there are going to be some questions about Chinese funding of American politicians. Mike Bloomberg seems heavily connected to China. The Clintons were bought 20 years ago. Both Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein have significant connections to China.
It’s scary now to think of medical supplies made in China. Ventilators, masks, etc. Does they FDA test for residual toxins on those things?
There was a scare about dog food made in China a year or two ago. Most dog =owners check labels carefully now to avoid any Chinese product. This long predates the recent issues.
Gurray
It’s scary now to think of medical supplies made in China. Ventilators, masks, etc. Does they FDA test for residual toxins on those things?
Communist Quality Control: Beijing Sends 150,000 Wuhan Virus Testing Kits to Prague, 80% Fail.
Exactly, DrK – there was a general good feeling towards China, for a number of years – yes, like the Luce media empire. Now that is all gone. Japan was once a locus for “cheap and shoddy” – but they pulled up their socks and got on with producing high-quality product, and worth what was paid for it. I still have a lovely stereo system, bought when I was a baby troop in Japan in the early 1980s. China … not so much. I have just gotten a number of small house things for review through the Amazon Vine thing – manufactured in China. All three of them were crap and stopped working in a week or so.
Issues -like the pet food matter. Another – how about the slaughter of rhinos and other exotic wildlife in Africa – because of some weird Chinese folk medicine incorporating body parts of rhinos and lions. That … has to add to the growing unhappiness.
“like the Luce media empire”
Huh. I knew Luce was a big Chiang / KMT support, but did he go on backing the PRC too? I had thought he started the whole “who lost China” controversy — didn’t know that, thanks.
It’s worth thinking about what would have happened if all US manufacturers had patriotically *refused* to offshore production to China and other low-wage countries. Would it have made any difference?…or would they have just been displaced by European and indigenous Chinese manufacturers selling to American consumers at irresistible prices?
How many Americans were willing to pay a substantial premium to buy ‘Made in America’ products? There seems to be more people responding to ads emphasizing ‘Made by village craftsmen in the Amazon’ than ‘Made by American workers in the Midwest.’
Some companies would probably have done alright by being very efficient and astute and fully leveraging the benefits of shorter supply lines…but overall, I think the only think that could have avoided the hollowing-out phenomenon was substantial tariffs.
I suspect that NOW, in the wake of Coronavirus, there will be a lot more people responsive to a Made in America brand…but still only if the quality-adjusted price premium isn’t too large.
We will make an effort to buy American for a while, then gradually go back to whoever will give us the best deal. China will be last on our list, but we will likely eventually get there. There will be an increase in those who boycott forever.
Just a small point: part of the reason for offshoring manufacturing to China was ever-increasing union demands in some industries. I go for long motorcycle rides here in the Southeast, and I’ve come across numerous textile plants, all shuttered. I’ve talked to some long-term residents, and they point out that several times, the union elite parachuted into the region and made demands of companies that the rank-and-file thought were unnecessarily high. The locals recognized the potential of killing the goose that laid the good-jobs eggs. And after a while, yep, it made fiscal sense at the macro level to move manufacturing overseas. Norma Rae did a lot of damage.
So if we restart manufacturing in the US, we need to keep a tight leash on union attempts to reassert themselves.
I suspect that NOW, in the wake of Coronavirus, there will be a lot more people responsive to a Made in America brand”¦but still only if the quality-adjusted price premium isn’t too large.
A lot will depend on the product and on quality. Nobody buys Chinese cars or fighter jets. David Goldman has become almost a cheerleader about Chinese technology and 5G especially. I am a fan of his but have stopped reading his stuff about China. Toys will probably remain very price sensitive. Pharmaceuticals less so. The heparin scandal of a couple years ago was a warning.
The PLA has become increasingly aggressive but China may have a problem with finances.
The insane reaction to Trump’s election in 2016 is a red flag. I hope it will be seen as a warning but I still see lots of crazy stuff on Facebook. I suspect there are quite a few Chinese trolls posting stuff, especially now about the virus thing,
The attitudes can flip. When I was in 1st grade in a mid-western state [noting that I am an American born citizen of Chinese ancestry] as the only Chinese in my elementary school they posed me with a KMT [Taiwan] flag and others of appropriate ethnicity by the flags of the other members of the Security Council, and took a picture that ended up in the local paper for UN Day. And it was considered a very good thing.
In my Jr. year of high school, I was in a different mid-western state, having moved there literally during the Tet Offensive in 1968. At the time, I was aiming for Annapolis, had a straight A average, worked full time at my dad’s restaurant, and was classified on the far right hand side of the S-B scale. The high school locals were unable to tell one flavor of Asian from another and assumed my epicanthic folds meant I was VC. It ended up with me acquiring a concealable pistol and carrying it to school and convincing the locals that 7 fewer would reach me than started out. The term “I’m your huckleberry” had not been popularized yet, but that was the concept. Ironic that I ended up having a career wearing a badge.
In any case, reducing our dependence on a undeniably hostile PRC would be to our benefit. Especially imports with military uses and medical uses. This could be done with the right leadership. That leadership will not come from the Democrats who crave submission to China. It will not come from the GOPe, that wants desperately to submit to the Democrats. Only the Conservative/TEA Party/Trump movement will take a stand.
Since Trump is president he could take some steps on his own by pushing restrictions and tariffs on the military dual use and medical goods. He could also cut off and expel Chinese nationals as both students and as professors. As well as blocking them from DOD/NASA/and other nationally critical departments. I would not mind if prices on food exported to China, as well as other goods, went up by whatever means.
If he does make such an effort he will need support. That is our job, to support any efforts to liberate our country.
Subotai Bahadur
I can tell you that before the virus thing hit, Fall of 2019, the US government was already tightening up its requirements for domestic research contracts. Stuff like the Confucius Institute, and all the Chinese intelligence collection were already being responded to.
I had attributed the Democrat madness about Trump to purely domestic origins, even as I was starting to put the pieces together about the curious silence about China considering the Russia, Russia, RUSSIA!
Bunch of hard decisions I’m glad I’m not making the call on.
Think back. How often have you seen some Leftie boast about some variation on how successful regulation has been in making the US cleaner. It certainly is true that pollution here has been cut down — but at the cost of moving so much industry to China (and elsewhere). It was excessive regulation that drove the manufacture of pharmaceuticals to China, not the lower cost of labor there.
We the People voted for politicians who made really stupid one-sided deals. To take a rather small example, it costs about 10 times as much to mail a parcel to China as it does to mail the same parcel from China to the US.
To correct this national suicide, we need politicians who will cut excessive regulations, simplify the labyrinthine tax code, revise trade deals to make them even-handed, deal head-on with the excesses of greedy self-serving Big Law, and get governmental over-spending under control. This is on us — all China can be accused of doing is taking advantage of our own stupidity. Where in what Subotai correctly calls the UniParty are we going to find those politicians? President Trump is doing his best, but he basically stands alone.
Now look a month or two down the road. It is a fairly safe prediction that China will be back in business — and the US will be a mess, thanks to the stupid over-reaction of our dim-witted Political Class to a minor virus; businesses bankrupted, people out of work, governmental over-reaching, nasty public occurrences. Don’t be surprised to find a lot of people wondering — Why can’t we be more like China?
Subotai, the guy who built the boat that beat us in the 1981 Transpac was Foo Lim. He usually built fishing boats but that one was a terrific example of wood light construction. He was our host in Oahu and was a little embarrassed that his boat had beaten us for overall victory by 9 minutes. We didn’t care and he was a great host.
His two sons were champion sailors and entered the 1982 Olympics for Taiwan. I don’t think they were allowed to compete.
I suspect Trump will be edging toward Taiwan like he has moved toward Israel.
I think that Americans are perfectly capable of making a distinction between Chinese citizens and the PRC. With the former regarded as having little little control over the latter. The recent revelations that any Chinese national you encounter might be either a member of the PLA or, more likely, an agent of Chinese intelligence with or without compulsion is starting to complicate that.
I think that the acceptance of Chinese goods was based at least partly on making that distinction. This acceptance will be very strained if there is a significant death toll to the Wuhan Virus and economic dislocation.
The situation with shipping goods from China is completely snarled at the moment and will not get better any time soon with the American economy struggling. There had been Chinese car makers with plans to introduce cars into the U.S. That probably won’t happen.
Apple is still committed to China, It will be interesting to see if they start to pay a price. It won’t be the first time that they badly misjudged the market. Now that they are primarily a cell phone company, they are facing a lot more competition.
About China, I’d just like to point that we were allies during WWII and we destroyed their mortal enemy- Imperial Japan- thus allowing them to regain control of the various areas annexed by that nation.
Our reward was to be attacked five short years later in Korea.
China has never been our friend and no sane nation would have allowed them to eviscerate our economy the way China has done.
The thing is, the United States has not been ruled as a nation for generations. We are ruled as the homeland of globalists who at best somehow believe that they are ruling the world by misruling the Untied States into oblivion.
At worst, they are merely traitors.
Speaking of traitors, I remember the P-3 incident. I thought at the time that surely our policy re China would change, but it did not. Bush took no effective action when China forced down that aircraft, nor did he act when tens of thousands of factories left the United States, replaced by ruins and the inability to make aspirin. Clinton and Obama were, of course, no better.
If there is one good thing that could come of this awful pandemic, it may that China’s mask has slipped too far to excused by payouts to U.S. media and threats to globalist U.S. businesses.
The Bush family may have connections to China that we have never learned about. Tienanmen Square maybe have been an indicator that was ignored. Remember, Bush was ambassador to China early in the relationship. He was also Director of the CIA.
Apple is still committed to China, It will be interesting to see if they start to pay a price.
Their design work is all in Cupertino. My daughter was interviewed 6 or 7 times for a job with them. She was concerned about where she could live and was even thinking about buying an RV to park. The job did not materialize and she is married with a baby now but Apple has the intellectual stuff all in the US. They may be shifting some of the manufacturing to Taiwan.
The FDA requires all manufacturing facilities shipping drugs and devices to the US to be registered and those facilities are liable to be inspected by FDA inspectors without notice. I don’t know how often Chinese facilities are inspected but in the US the FDA used to show up at the door of the facilities I worked at every two or three years, more often if there were complaints about the products.
The new sterilization facility I contracted in Guangdong couldn’t ship until it was inspected by FDA inspectors. I imagine there’s more cooperation between the FDA and ISO these days. Perhaps they share the burden of inspecting off shore facilities but I don’t know that for a fact.
Tim Cook might be naive enough to believe that Apple still possesses IP that hasn’t been exfiltrated by on or another of their cheerful Chinese workers, I’m not. I wouldn’t be surprised if their continued dependence on China for manufacturing isn’t to forestall the introduction of a “Peach” phone.
Anonymous,
I will take issue in that foreign inspections are coordinated in advance. This from Derek Lowe’s blog.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/
The FDA has virtually no inspectors fluent in Chinese. Here’s another source for information on some of the scams that Chinese manufacturers play, including building communal show factories to be inspected by foreigners that can’t read road signs.
https://www.chinalawblog.com/
You might want to talk to the above about representation.
well didn’t Scowcroft and the late larry Eagleburger, shape that policy as well in Yugoslavia, where they may have been inadvertently right, as well as china, Scowcroft went on to be a leading flack for the Saudi lobby, now his atlantic council does the mullahs business,
A recent study on organ harvesting of Falun Gong and Uighurs indicated it was most likely occurring on a regular basis:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-forcefully-harvests-organs-detainees-tribunal-concludes-n1018646
https://www.amazon.com/Slaughter-Killings-Harvesting-Solution-Dissident/dp/161614940X
and https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/03/12/congress-introduces-bill-stop-imports-chinese-goods-made-muslim-slaves/
If true, I am not sure how socially conscious, let alone the ever present virtue signalling corporations could continue operations in a country like that.
My Father in law retired some years ago from a very large .mil/.gov contractor. He was a high-level, award-winning project manager at a very large Gov facility in the Southeast that many have heard of but few really understand. Literally one of the nicest people ever who would turn quietly menacing when asked the wrong question- I’ve seen it happen. Due to contracts and projects working with DOE, he maintained “Q” level clearance for much of his working life. He has and had a deeply-rooted security orientation on every matter in his life that needed or required it, personal or work.
That said, when Ma fell and began declining, I had to wonder if he was distracted. Seemingly out of nowhere- or so it appeared to me and my wife- there was a very gentle Chinese woman (who worked for one of the sub-contractors in this town) they had met at their church who was volunteering inordinate amounts of time to help both the FIL and MIL. At the time- about 18 months ago- I had some serious reservations, although she was so kind in her manner that to press the matter seemed a bit untoward. Even my wife thought it was likely just a nice gesture- the woman had been so helpful especially to other women and widows in the church and community, where almost everyone works in some capacity for this contractor and its subs.
Eventually, Ma really began to fail and they moved west with Sis-in-law and her husband, a deeply religious couple. They met this kind Chinese woman and adored her. The relationship made their virtue signaling dreams come true, it appeared. This “Julie” as I’ll call her Americanized name eventually flew over 1,500 miles to visit, after helping them accomplish their move. That really gave me something to consider.
Ma has sadly passed away. Whenever we visit now I look at Pa’s laptops, cellphones and iPad’s and have to wonder. He’s been retired long enough not to have contemporary information, and he’s as mentioned very cautious. But he also always stayed hooked-in to the many retiree groups in the area and received calls to consult from time to time. I’m considering having them scanned; I’m not sure what Pa’s reaction would be.I know for a fact that he could not have revealed anything, but perhaps others wanted to find out for themselves.
I used to think I was being cynical. Now, after all the arrests and firings and deportations, I’m certain I was not. Even my wife has some serious doubts about the altruism of this Chinese national with very poor English and a deep abiding “Christian faith”, as the Sis in law still loves to tout.
Anti-China antipathy has been building since America (or at least businesses and politicians) handed them the manufacturing industry, as you pointed out, and we keep it there because we prefer cheap goods. We could have higher quality made-in-China goods but that would cost more, so we don’t bother. (Even the F-35 and Hellfire missiles rely on China, not to mention rare earth minerals, medicines, etc.). And the antipathy and anxiety has increased even more as America has been declining and China has been rising, becoming the number one economy several years ago.
“… the third devastating epidemic originating in China, by the way, the swine flu and the H1N1 virus being the first two.”
Are you sure about that? Just from some quick research, it seems like the swine flu and H1N1 of 2009-2010 are the same thing, and it originated in Mexico. And the new coronavirus may not have originated in China. Seriously. Here’s a copy & paste from a comment at AmRen a couple days ago:
Well, I understand why you people keep pretending this coronavirus definitely originated in China, but it is remarkable how all of you (professional liars & ostentatious patriots in government & corporate media, and simpletons like “Paul Kersey” of Unz Review) keep ignoring the evidence that suggests it most likely originated in the US. You may wish it doesn’t exist, but that scientific evidence and circumstantial evidence is being mentioned more and more on the internet (not just by the Chinese), especially at Unz Review. Now there’s a piece at The American Conservative titled “The Staggering Collapse Of U.S. Intelligence On The Coronavirus” (March 24, 2020). The author Scott Ritter is a former USMC intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, and he’s the guy who tried to warn everyone that Iraq didn’t have WMD (before the 2003 invasion). That piece has a link to Larry Romanoff’s piece at Global Research titled “China’s Coronavirus: A Shocking Update. Did the Virus Originate in the US?” (March 4, 2020), without necessarily endorsing Romanoff’s article. I’m not an expert on all this but both of these articles are readable, and sober.
Some of the evidence and speculations (which no one in the superficial corporate media has refuted or even addressed, as far as I know, despite the 24/7 saturation coverage):
“The geographical location with the greatest diversity of virus strains must be the original source” and only the US has all five known strains.
Indications that the coronavirus didn’t originate from animals at the Huanan seafood market, but from human-to-human transmissions in November before spreading at the market, or as early as October 1, 2019.
US military athletes arrived in Wuhan for the Military World Games in mid-October.
US deaths from August of last year that were attributed to vaping and influenza may have actually been from a coronavirus.
In July 2019, the CDC shut down the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick because of “failure to implement and maintain containment procedures sufficient to contain select agents or toxins.”
“Between 2005 and 2012 the US had experienced 1,059 events where pathogens had been either stolen or escaped from American bio-labs.” (Romanoff)
The CDC acknowledged on March 11 that some Americans who supposedly died of influenza actually died from the coronavirus.
The initial national-level meetings conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services were classified by the National Security Council… “This lack of transparency on the part of the Trump administration only fuels speculation about the reasons for meetings normally conducted in the open suddenly being classified, as well as precisely what information is being hidden from the public.”
Real journalists and real patriots would be raising questions like this but of course we only have fake news organizations and fake patriots in charge of the country. And not too many competent people.
The FDA requires all manufacturing facilities shipping drugs and devices to the US to be registered and those facilities are liable to be inspected by FDA inspectors without notice.
I think I linked previously to a report that the FDA inspectors don’t read or speak the language and they are dependent on CCP “guides and translators” who take them to Potemken factories and show them faked records.
“D3” seems to be either PenGun under a new handle or our own private Chinese troll.
Too coherent for PenGun and better syntax and grammar than any native Chinese speaker I’ve seen. Probably a hired stooge. Too bad they didn’t hire him for the last few dozen product manual I’ve had to try to translate into a human readable language.
You Chicago Boyz seen to have arrived.
Here’s a bit of rebuttal for our Chinese troll.
Thayer is a political science professor at the University of Texas-San Antonio and Han is the Vice President of the Citizens for Power Initiatives of China, an organization that is “currently constructing a comprehensive timeline to review the Chinese government’s responses amid the 2019 Novel Coronavirus outbreak.”
The pair assert that “the coronavirus pandemic has shown that Ghebreyesus is not fit to lead the WHO.”
Thayer and Han accused Ghebreyesus of “politicizing the crisis” and “downplaying the severity” of the coronavirus. They also noted that Ghebreyesus was elected in 2017 without any experience as a doctor, but rather as a “a former minister of health and minister of foreign affairs for Ethiopia” and “an executive member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).”
Trolls are so easy to spot.
MCS, I was anonymous, above.
I will take issue in that foreign inspections are coordinated in advance.
I don’t find that surprising. At the drug & device facilities I’ve worked for in the US and Puerto Rico the FDA showed up unannounced, but ISO always gave a couple of weeks notice. Chinese and other foreign countries’ facilities may well get advance notice of inspection by the FDA. Logistics would be my guess for the different treatment.
I do know the the ethylene oxide gas sterilization facility that was built by a Taiwanese subcontractor in the city of Dongguan to the requirements put forth by a company I worked for required both ISO and FDA inspections before it could ship product to our US facility. Of course those inspections were scheduled in advance because it was a brand new facility.
The FDA’s standard is safe and effective for human use. But they’re more interested in paperwork than operations. Along with ISO, they demand that you document what you’re going to do, and then do it. It’s usually the latter that trips up a company: not doing what you documented you were going to do. Well-written SOPs are fine, but following them is often messier task.
Just an observation, and a 25-year-old one at that: I bought subassemblies from several different PRC firms. Most of those firms were run by Taiwanese corporations. They were modern, well run facilities. The facilities owned by the PLA (usually in Xi’an, where Mao placed a lot of high-tech defense contractors) on the other hand were old fashioned. They were fine for non-critical components but I would have never given a PLA manufacturing facility any business of for important components.
I first read of the despicable lie that this pandemic originated from a US military visit to Wuhan in a comment linking to a personal website of what I took to be an American living in China.
Curious, I cut-and-pasted the link and visited the site. There was quite a lot of uhm, content.
For example, the author was quite enamored of the awesomeness of China. Of course, I suppose he had to be. Or else. But that’s not all. He also had a theory that the moon was put in orbit around the Earth 600 million years ago by space aliens. In fact, the exact same space aliens that created the Cambrian Explosion.
In short, a crazy person. I lost interest. Imagine my surprise when I saw the exact same theory expounded at the Unz Review.
Golly.
I just revisited the site. He also worked with space aliens, until his retirement and move to China.
To be blunt, I’m not interested enough to wade deep into that sea of nonsense to find out all the ins and outs of why he thinks the US started the present pandemic, because he is obviously either crazy, making **** up for fun, or a Chinese intelligence op of some sort.
None of these possibilities inspire me to take this idea seriously. Of course, I also recall reading early on that President Xi publicly stated that the level of security at the Wuhan biolab was a matter of national security, implicitly admitting that it was the source of the outbreak.
Well, can’t have that now, since this has since turned into a global catastrophe. Thus, why wouldn’t the Chinese Communist Party latch onto an insane theory of a lunatic, etc?
It’s much better for them than admitting the actual truth.
Many years ago I took a driving trip across country. My now-wife and I drove wherever we wanted and stopped for the night when we tired of driving.
One of those stops was in Idaho- a town named Kellogg, I think. I beg pardon if my recollection is wrong.
Anyway, when we were checking out of the hotel, I happened to pick up a book of local history, and flipped through it while waiting to check out.
There was once a huge lead mine in that town, employing thousands of people.
What happened?
You guessed it- “the union elite parachuted into the region and made demands of companies that the rank-and-file thought were unnecessarily high.”
Xennady, you don’t know the half of it. It was not only miners that were put out of work.
When I was there in 1959, Wallace and Kellogg, both mining towns, were also the location of quite a number of legal whorehouses.
Way back, the towns had decided that women were not safe with all the male miners so prostitution was legalized.
When I first drove to Hayden Lake, a very upscale resort before White Supremacy, a group of us went to dinner at the country club, which had Bing Crosby and Phil Harris as members. Friends asked me about my drive from Chicago. I was telling them about the bad conditions on I 90, which was under construction at the time. The road was great until you hit the Idaho border.
The group got very quiet and conversation moved on. After the girls went home and we went back for a nightcap, I was told I had committed the worst social faux pas in Cour d’Alene society. I had mentioned the road east of Cour d’Alene. They told me “We all have trouble with that road but no one talks about it when nice girls are around.” Everybody knew that the only reason you would know about that road is if you had been going to the whorehouses.
One of Bing Crosby’s son’s was almost killed on the road.
The good old days when most girls were nice and those things were not mentioned in polite company,