Hi Yiwu, no, China is indeed aggressively hiding info as I type this.
Just had a contact return from mainland China last night. A resort area.
China blocked access to the WHO website a few days ago (about 3-4 days ago) from this region.
Not even the Americans know about the disease. (And the disease's name is not the issue.)
Additionally, China also has not informed Americans in China that are conducting humanitarian activities through a very highly, well-known world-wide group. I mean, come on. These are the people on the front lines of any issues too. Go figure. Where's the news on that?
Further more, the following quote is a lie:
"In an effort to facilitate faster responses, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi announced "the immediate establishment of a national medical emergency mechanism, with emphasis placed on a public health information and an early warning reporting mechanism," the Beijing Youth Daily reported on Saturday"
cnn.com
It's total BS, because China is aggressively blocking information, maybe not in the region WHO is in, but most certainly in other regions where WHO isn't located.
It sounds like well-prepared propaganda lies to keep American businesses & tourist revenue, than anything else, to fool WHO, because it focuses on one (probably well-prepared) region, not the other regions, where information is being blocked.
I hope this guy gets a bit more aggressive (and less trustful):
"Local efforts to warn the citizens of Guangdong have been successful, Chris Powell, a WHO spokesman said on Friday, noting a fall in the number of recent SARS cases there. "
I understand the benefits of Communism in a poor country and understand how this method of leadership can be faster at outpacing Democracies, like China has over India by 2X, and resulted in better factors in the standard of living, so Communism has proven here to serve a useful purpose - to jump-start a country's economy and propel it faster, so the lifestyle improves.
However, lying serves absolutely no purpose for growing China's businesses.
It's a huge turn off. And especially with this type of lie, it's actually the worst. It could very well back-fire on them - they think their method will retain businesses - when in fact their approach is scaring businesses. It creates distrust and is a nasty thing to do, especially on any Americans, where these types of lies are just totally off-the-map for us to comprehend.
I'm not going to follow up on some of the joint ventures we were invited to do in China, simply because of how China is handling this matter. And I'm not the only one I hear.
China needs to learn to be honest on very important matters like this. China's internal business becomes our business, when they spread their joys to us.
It makes absolutely no business sense to lie as they are indeed doing. They would be much smarter to get with the program and get a move on it. I'd like to see their market grow as much as they do - however - they certainly seem to be heading down the wrong path all of a sudden due to the way they are handling this. And they seem rather clueless to how businesses are interpreting this here.
India and other countries are looking better by the day. And that's actually not good for China, when you think of our hightech businesses that also would like to enter China's market. China could be shooting themselves in the foot by the way they are handling this. They are being very dishonest on this particular matter. I know this to be the case.
However, China isn't the only country that tries to hide information. Of course, every culture perceives their own omissions, to not be lies, right? fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn
But the worst thing any Chinese person can do, is to allow their country to lie, especially when the lies can turn around and hurt their country. SARS itself isn't as scary as the thought that China is willing to lie for their short-sighted short-term gain but at the cost of potentially hurting the well-being of American tourists, American businesses, and American humanitarians. It makes you wonder, where else are they lying? This isn't a small white lie.
At the moment, China is conducting itself in a way that has the potential to hurt itself in terms of their business growth. Bad move, so speak out, if you are actually for China.
Maybe my post is strong, but I was upset to hear what is actually going on over there.
On a lighter note (I think), the Bay Area is all sold out on masks. You can't get one, even if you wanted one. Remember the game, "Where's Waldo?" Well, I received a hilarious email from someone I work with, "I was driving by such-a-such city in the Bay Area and they don't even have masks here." He wasn't needing a mask, but it's turned into a game, like Where's Waldo.
Regards,
Amy J |
