China has buried the truth about the coronavirus !

COVID-19 lies to keep Chinese economy going

Over the past 70 years, the Chinese Communist party has subjected its country to a succession of manmade catastrophes, from the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square massacre, to the forceful suppression of rights in Hong Kong and Tibet, and the mass internment of Uighurs in Xinjiang. Official coverups and corruption have multiplied the death toll of natural calamities, from the Sars virus to the Sichuan earthquake.

Data on March 10th 2020 – Johns Hopkins University

Xi Jinping’s mishandling of the CoronaVirus Pandemic must now be added to the party’s shameful list of crimes. With serious outbreaks occurring in Japan, South Korea, Iran and Italy, it is clear that the virus of Xi’s totalitarian rule threatens the health and freedoms not only of the Chinese people, but of all of us everywhere.

PROPBABLY OVER 3 MILLION INFECTED CHINESE PEOPLE !

Xi’s vacuous, self-aggrandising ideological vision lies at the heart of this global crisis. When he was appointed party leader in 2012, he announced his “China dream” of national rejuvenation, promising that the country would be moderately prosperous by the party’s 2021 centenary, and fully advanced into global economic hegemony by the republic’s centenary in 2049. Xi vowed that, by then, the world would concede that his one-party dictatorship is superior to the mess of liberal democracy.

Appointing himself “president for life”, Xi now has more power than any party leader since Mao Zedong, and has crushed all dissent by attempting to build a hi-tech totalitarian state. The Communist party is an insidious pathogen that has infected the Chinese people since 1949. But under Xi’s rule, it has mutated into its most sinister form, allowing capitalism to grow rapaciously while reaffirming Leninist control. The promise of wealth and national glory has blinded many Chinese people to the chains around their feet, and to the barbed wire around the faraway internment camps.

OFFICIAL CORONA / COVID-19 FIGURES – 50% DEATHS ?!?

In a speech on 31 December 2019, Xi heralded triumphantly a new year of “milestone significance in realising the first centenary goal!” Naturally, he didn’t mention the mysterious pneumonia reported that day by health authorities in Wuhan, Hubei province. Although the World Health Organization had been notified, the Chinese people were largely kept in the dark. How could an invisible bug be allowed to dampen the glory of Xi’s China dream?

In times of crisis, the party always places its own survival above the welfare of the people. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan central hospital, has become the tragic symbol of this disaster. On 30 December, he notified his former medical classmates on WeChat that seven people with an unspecified coronavirus, which reminded him of Sars (the virus that killed almost 800 people in 2003), were in quarantine at his hospital, and advised them to protect themselves. In any normal society, this wouldn’t be considered subversive – but in China, even a small act of kindness, a cautious and private alert to colleagues, can land a person in political danger. On 3 January, Li was reprimanded by police – he then went back to work, and within days contracted the virus.

Over the next two weeks – the critical window of containment – authorities claimed the problem was under control. But coronavirus is indifferent to the vain desires of despots. Left unchecked, it spread. By the time Xi deigned to publicly acknowledge the outbreak, on 20 January, ordering it to be “resolutely contained”, it was too late.

On 23 January, Wuhan was placed in lockdown. Yet on that same day, at a reception in Beijing, Xi merely stressed the need to “race against time and keep abreast with history to realise the first centenary goal of the China dream of national rejuvenation”. Videos on WeChat and Weibo revealed the hollowness of Xi’s ambitions. There was footage of deserted boulevards in affected cities. Corpses lying unattended on pavements. A woman on the balcony of a luxury tower block striking a gong and wailing into the sky: “My mother is dying, rescue me!”

As Li lay on his deathbed on 30 January, he revealed the truth about his experience of the epidemic. Despite being a party member, he spoke to the New York Times about official failures to disclose essential information about the virus to the public, and told the Beijing-based journal Caixin: “A healthy society cannot have just one voice.” In that one sentence, he identified the root cause of China’s sickness. Xi suppresses truth and information to create his utopian “harmonious” society. But harmony can only emerge from a plurality of differing voices, not from the one-note monologue of a tyrant.

After the eruption of public grief and anger that followed Li’s death on 6 February, the government backtracked, and hailed the doctor they had muzzled “a hero”. But behind the scenes, the silencing continued: several people who documented and spoke out about state handling of the outbreak were detained.

In the thick of calamity, people finally understand that if your leaders have no regard for human life or liberty, no amount of money can save you. Entire families have been wiped out by the virus as more than 70 million people have been confined to their homes. Chinese officials have today reported 78,064 infections and 2,715 deaths, mostly in Hubei. But no one trusts the party’s figures. The only certainty about the numbers it releases is that they are the numbers it wants you to believe. In an effort to change the narrative after Li’s death, the party has called for a people’s war against the virus, and has urged journalists to replace “negative content” on social media with “touching stories from the frontline of combating the disease”. Having buried the truth about the calamity of the Cultural Revolution and other earlier crimes, the party is now dragging the nation back to its Maoist past.

Official language is being contaminated once more with military jargon; society is being divided once more into antagonist groups – not the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, but the infected against the yet-to-be-infected. Rural police post videos of their attacks on citizens who dare venture outside without a face mask.

The state media have posted photographs of pregnant nurses in hazmat suits serving on the frontline; there are masked patients in another field hospital being awarded party membership on their deathbeds, joyfully raising their fists in the air as they pledge undying loyalty to Xi. To anyone with a conscience, these sad individuals look like victims of an inhumane cult. That it is believed these snapshots could promote “positive energy” reveals the moral abyss into which totalitarianism has sunk the nation.

Meanwhile, with the epidemic still raging, Xi has ordered the country back to work, all to ensure that the economic targets of his 21st-century goals are met. Of course, he is keeping the political elite safe, though, by postponing the National People’s Congress in March. Further proof, if it was at all needed, that Xi’s China dream is a sham.

Ma Jian is an author from Qingdao, China. He left Beijing for Hong Kong in 1987 as a dissident, and after the handover moved to London. All his books are banned in China. Check Updates Yourself @ CSSE

Source : TheGuardian

If Coronavirus is not stopped now, It’ll Be Armageddon !

This week a new phrase – social distancing measures – entered our lexicon.

Introduced by Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, she described “social distancing measures” as part of standard protocol to limit “community spread” of disease in the case of a pandemic, which the coronavirus (officially COVID-19) has not yet reached but threatens to do so.

The President and government officials are working valiantly to reassure Americans that the “threat to the American public remains low,” as VP Pence said in Wednesday’s nationally televised news conference.

However, in a separate news briefing the same day, Dr. Messonier was less than reassuring. “Ultimately, we expect we will see community spread in this country,” she said. “It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.”

During that briefing, she outlined three categories of non-pharmaceutical interventions or NPIs to contain community spread of the virus. There are common-sense personal NPIs like washing hands, covering coughs, and not touching one’s face. Environmental NPIs include frequent washing of surfaces people touch.

And then there are community NPIs. “Social distancing measures designed to keep people who are sick away from others,” she said. “These are practical measures that can help limit exposure by reducing exposure in community settings.” In other words, keeping out of public places and in one’s home to avoid potential exposure.

It may mean closing schools and businesses, as has been done in Northern Italy, an emerging hot spot for the disease. The Guardian described the region as effectively in “lockdown” with schools, businesses, public offices, and restaurants closed, and sporting events and religious services canceled.

Recognizing there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty about what’s to come because this is a new virus and totally unpredictable, Dr. Messonnier stressed that community interventions will vary depending on local conditions. But she also warned, “We would implement these NPI measures in a very aggressive, proactive way.” The CDC has set up a separate website to provide updates on the progress of the disease in the country.

Community interventions will mean closed businesses

Should community NPIs become necessary, it could be devastating to brick-and-mortar retailers especially, but even to e-commerce retailers which may be forced to close fulfillment facilities or be unable to make home deliveries. Forgive me for going biblical on you, but since we’ve long talked about the “retail apocalypse,” we may as well go all the way to the potential for a retail Armageddon if our public health officials enact such aggressive, proactive measures to halt the spread of the disease.

We all hope and pray this disease abates like the flu as the warm weather arrives, but it may take a turn for the worse. Nobody knows. Nobody can predict. And it may come back stronger in the fall, as flu typically does.

Consumer confidence shaken

Already investors are seeing the writing on the wall. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.4% this week with a drop of more than 3,500 points, making February the worst month since 2009.

Doug Cohen, managing director at Athena Capital Advisors, is quoted saying, “This unfortunately is the perfect storm. This is not something out of a standard economic textbook.” Combine consumers’ fear of contracting a potentially fatal disease with fears about the economy and you have that “perfect storm” Cohen speaks about coming to retailers dependent on consumer confidence to open their wallets and spend. Also on Wednesday, the National Retail Federation’s president and CEO Matthew Shay was characteristically bullish about prospects for retail in 2020.  

“The nation’s record-long economic expansion is continuing, and consumers remain the drivers of that expansion,” he said, predicting that retail sales will increase between 3.5% and 4.1% in 2020, “despite uncertainty from the lingering trade war, coronavirus and the presidential election.”

“With gains in household income and wealth, lower interest rates and strong consumer confidence, we expect another healthy year ahead,” he continued. “There are always wild cards we cannot control like coronavirus and a politically charged election year. But when it comes to the fundamentals, our economy is sound and consumers continue to lead the way.”

Consumers signal caution

However, a new survey indicates consumers are leading the way to a slowdown in retail sales, not an uptick especially if the coronavirus takes hold.

“U.S. consumers are already becoming cautious—and if the situation worsens (or even the perception of the situation), U.S. consumers could dramatically change habits to reduce the risk of infection, and this could hit retailers hard,” Coresight Research reports from its survey among 2,000 adult Americans conducted February 25-26.

Currently, some 28% of those surveyed said they are already steering clear of public places, like shopping centers, entertainment venues, and changing travel plans.

Further, 58% said they will avoid public areas or travel if the outbreak worsens in the U.S., with about one-fifth as of now uncertain what they will do if it becomes more of a threat. Frankly, those undecideds may have no choice depending upon the measures enacted by public health officials.

Digging deeper into consumers’ expectations of how their behavior will change, the survey found shopping centers and malls are the first place consumers will avoid, followed by public transportation and international travel.

Some 75% of those who say their behavior will change if the outbreak worsens will avoid malls, as compared with 73% avoiding public transportation, and 68% postponing international travel.

As compared with shopping centers and malls, they are less likely to stay out of stores in general, with some 53% of those who expect to change behavior if the outbreak worsens saying they will avoid stores.

But it is far more likely they will shop primarily for necessities in grocery, drug, and hardware stores, rather than stores that cater to discretionary purchases. Restaurants, bars, and coffee shops are also likely to take a hit, with 61% saying they will avoid these if the outbreak worsens.

Beyond necessity purchases, retailers’ success is far more dependent on how people feel. If consumers feel confident, they will spend. If they don’t, then they will delay unnecessary purchases and sit tight. That is what could happen if this disease advances, as it likely will.

Picking up the pieces in the aftermath

Assuming a best-case scenario, retailers might take a short-term hit, but consumers could come back strong later to make up their delayed purchases. But retailers should plan for rising consumer uncertainty that could have devastating long-term consequences.

In a recent article by Jing Daily columnist Jiaqi Loa, exploring the psychological impacts of the coronavirus on Chinese citizens, wrote, “It’s become a disorienting, time-stopping social disaster. How can a company convey a marketing message that doesn’t sound out of place to a public who just experienced this type of fear, trauma, and paranoia?”

American consumers are already on edge, as the Coresight Research study indicates, and with the stock market imploding this week amid fears it will continue to tank, consumer confidence could be rattled to the core, like it was in 2008-2009. In a prescient article by fellow Forbes.com contributor Nikki Baird, she predicts the coming decade may bring the “death of consumerism.”

She writes, “Consumers are becoming more mindful and sensitive to their environmental footprint, and consumerism is highly vulnerable to that sensitivity. I would even go so far as to say that in the next decade, retail sees a substantial shrinking of consumerism.” Even before the coronavirus, there have been deep changes taking place in the minds of consumers, resulting from their growing recognition that our consumer culture is a major contributor to environmental damage.

Combine this with the psychologically-disorienting effect from fear of catching a contagious disease and any self-imposed or even forced halt to unnecessary shopping caused by a potential pandemic, and we can expect dramatic changes to how consumers shop and what they spend their money on. 

A perfect retail storm is brewing. It may mean deep and long-lasting changes in consumer psychology. We can hope for the best, but we need to plan for the worse.

Source: Forbes