China

Open Thread Friday 4-24-2020

A Look at China Part One

Morning. Over the next few weeks I am going to share some of my thoughts and readings on China. It is one of the few places in the world not colonized by a Western power. Our growing antagonism towards China is part of a longer cycle of admiration and disdain for the Chinese culture that has played out for centuries.

The email said, "Go buy as much food as you can store. Buy some virus masks at the drug store. Lock your doors and don't leave your house again."

I had spoken to my friend Paul a couple of days ago and I mentioned the coronavirus epidemic. He seemed pretty sanguine about it, confident it would be brought under control. But that was two days ago, and there was only one reported infection in Seattle. As of tonight, however, there are five confirmed coronavirus cases in five large cities from Phoenix to New York. However, it wasn't any of this that had rattled Paul, who by-the-way, happens to be a public health physician.

I remember Paul once remarked, during the Ebola crisis, that "Viruses have learned to get around using modern aviation. Air travel is already factored in modern epidemiology." Later, I checked on that: It seems that up until one hundred years ago, plagues traveled at a rate of just 20 miles per day. The Plague was still coming for you, but it might take some time for it to arrive."

As if on cue, one of those flying germ-sacks landed and ejected a coughing passenger from the plane, today. It later turned out that the passenger actually did have the Chinese coronavirus. Another passenger filmed it with his cell phone.

China versus the U.S.: will trade war become hot war? Falling into the Thucydides Trap

American politicians are almost unique in failing to learn from history--although M. Macron is giving our pols a run for the money (Rothchild's actually) by suppressing the Yellow Vests. The lesson I am sharing with you is not new. It's 2500 years old in fact and well documented too.

Pages