The China Thread

[Josquius]

Yeah I like bats. They're good pest controllers. Let's not eat them ok

[crazy canuck]

Oh yeah, the WHO is being exposed pretty badly. Good point. I think reforms will be demanded from them.

The WHO has no power.  It can only recommend and the recommendations it was making were largely ignored, including in the US where your President and his media allies said it was all a left wing hoax.

Yeah, let's definitely blame the WHO.

[Eddie Teach]

Yeah, let's definitely blame the WHO.

Nobody knows what it's like to be the bad guy.   

[celedhring]

We won't get fooled again.

[crazy canuck]

We have hours, only lonely

[Sheilbh]

Anybody here particularly attached to bats? What ecological role do they perform? I wouldn't mind getting rid. 

I quite like bats - they're charismatic animals.

But we should keep a healthy distance between us and the bats in future

The WHO has no power.  It can only recommend and the recommendations it was making were largely ignored, including in the US where your President and his media allies said it was all a left wing hoax.

Yeah, let's definitely blame the WHO.

This is true. But the WHO has no power which is why in the middle of January they were issuing statements that there were no human-to-human transmission cases in Wuhan and nothing to worry about.

[Monoriu]

It is a crisis but also an opportunity.  Beijing wants to show to the people that it can manage a crisis well, and that it can lead the world. 

The real problem I think will be what happens after this is over.  Probably tens of thousands people will die all over the world and the economy will suffer.  Many countries are facing their greatest challenge since WWII.  People won't forgive and forget so easily.  There will be demands for change, review and accountability.  The worst nightmare of China will be a united world demanding changes, such as the consumption and trading of wild animals, transparency when it comes to diseases, freedom of the press, more access by NGOs and international agencies, etc. 

I think the WHO is also kinda screwed.

Any talk or action in China about actually exterminating all wet markets? The 2003-2004 SARS outbreak was the canary in the coal mine. That only killed a few hundred. Now it's pretty clear horseshoe bats/pangolins are the source of SARS 2 / COVID -19. There will be a SARS 3 if the Chinese government allows this practice to continue.

Nothing wrong with wet markets per se.  The problem is live animals in wet markets.  An even greater problem is wild animals in wet markets.  In theory the party has already banned the consumption and trading of wild animals.  The trouble is the people ignore the law.  The Wuhan seafood market that started all this didn't really do seafood.  It was a trading and logistics hub of all kinds of wild animals.  Bats and different kinds of species intermixed there. 

The fundamental problem is there is a persistent belief among Chinese that wild animals have all kinds of treasures.  I have seen textbooks for kids educating them that eating the brains of this animal confers this benefit, eating the bone marrow of that will do this, etc etc. 

[Sheilbh]

I've just looked up a wet market - yeah they're not an issue. Mono's right it's the live animals in there that's the problem.

[Monoriu]

I've just looked up a wet market - yeah they're not an issue. Mono's right it's the live animals in there that's the problem.

Hong Kong's problem is live chickens in our wet markets.  There is a belief that chickens taste better if they are alive when you buy the meat.  I am a pretty picky eater myself and I just don't notice the difference.  The real problem for the government is that there are hundreds of people who make a living out of selling and processing live chickens.  Government's strategy is to wait for them to retire, while discouraging anybody from joining the trade. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

Mono; are these viewpoints on animals old-fashioned or strong in young people as well as the elderly?

[Monoriu]

Mono; are these viewpoints on animals old-fashioned or strong in young people as well as the elderly?

I would imagine they are stronger among the elderly.  But on the Mainland, many young people still buy those crazy animal theories.  In a way it is a status symbol.  They are quite expensive, so eating exotic animals is one of the ways to show off wealth and status.  So it isn't just the elderly who do it. 

[Legbiter]

After this outbreak is over and the global cost has been tallied there should be...consequences for China. We got lucky with SARS, our luck ran out with this one.

[Monoriu]

Yeah, I just can't see say Italy or Spain moving on like nothing happened half a year later.  They will demand changes, and China will be in the crosshair. 

[Josquius]

Saw this video the other day which is a good summary of china's market issue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPpoJGYlW54

[Fate]

I've just looked up a wet market - yeah they're not an issue. Mono's right it's the live animals in there that's the problem.

The entire world should ban all travel from China or Chinese nationals until they show us definitely that this practice is gone. We can't shut down our economies like this ever again.