Actually, the following story shocked me.
It is entitled China’s model of control has been blamed for the coronavirus crisis, but for some it’s looking increasingly attractive. It was written by James Griffiths, a Senior Producer for CNN International.
I am going to republish much of Griffith’s article, with my comments in [brackets and bold].
***
…. While it’s debatable how communist modern China actually is…
[Is it debatable that China is fully communist? Modern China is the most oppressive, largest slave state in the history of the world.]
Numerous Western politicians, particularly on the right, have blamed China’s government and political system for causing the current global crisis.
[But didn’t they cause it?]
Many have continued to hammer phrases such as “China flu” or “Wuhan virus,” despite warnings that such terms could lead to increased hostility against Asians. Even those critics who try to avoid ethnically-tinged labels often speak of a “CPC virus” or “Xi flu,” named after country’s ruling party, the Communist Party of China and its leader, President Xi Jinping, respectively.
[This seems to be an admonishment to us not to call the coronavirus the China Flu, the Wuhan Flu, or even the Communist Party Flu or Xi Flu. If we do the latter, this might prompt prejudice against Communist China.]
… According to Pew Research, Americans’ opinion of China is at its lowest point in 15 years, and 62% of those surveyed said they viewed China’s power and influence as a “major threat.”
But for some, the Beijing model is not necessarily looking so bad.
[Who are these “some” who think the Bejing model is not so bad?]
China, despite being where the virus first emerged, has coped with the ensuing pandemic far better than many other countries, even though those countries had a longer warning time and greater chance to prepare.
[Is this true? China had longer to cope with it because they lied to the world about the virus, telling the world that it was not transmissible from human to human and that they had no idea of its origin. Still, do we know the truth about how well China is coping with the virus? Other than CNN, who else trusts what they tell the world?]
The crisis has also highlighted the benefits of a strong government and centralized planning
[Now we get to the point of the CNN story: The benefits of strong government! This is antithetical to American freedom ideals. “Strong government,” let’s face it, means authoritarian, it means government that curtails freedom and has no constitution to protect its citizens.]
In the United States, which is often held up – for better or worse – as the example par excellence of Western democracy,
[The emphasis here is on “worse.”]
the alternative to the Chinese model appears to be somewhat chaotic.
[The alternative to ruthless authoritarian China is chaotic? Yes, freedom is often chaotic. Communism is less chaotic since it is uniformly repressive and spirit-killing. Like all authoritarian states, Chinese people are often murdered silently so as to avoid any appearance of chaos.]
Far from a strong government, Washington has found itself fighting with state officials, facing accusations of pilfering medical supplies, and growing calls for greater state power.
[The premise of the article is propaganda for “strong government”. We know from history that the stronger the government, the less freedom. The steps from weak government to strong government is one where the people are incrementally made into slaves. So why is strong government to be desired? And who is actually calling for “greater state power”? The framers of the US constitution crafted it to try to ensure limited, weaker government. They wanted the government to fear the people, not for people to fear the government.]
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has been accused of spreading disinformation and encouraging protests.
[No CNN story can ever be complete without trashing the president.]
Speaking to Der Spiegel earlier this month, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the virus had exposed the problems at the heart of both the Chinese and US models. Asked which was being proven superior, Maas said “Neither.”
“China has taken some very authoritarian measures, while in the US, the virus was played down for a long time,” he told the magazine. “There are two extremes, neither of which can be a model for Europe.”
[But China downplayed the virus at first. However, at least Maas admits that China has taken “very authoritarian measures.” That is a kind of euphemism for “atrocities,” some of which may be far worse than the pandemic.]
Certainly, China’s leaders, and their vast propaganda apparatus, have not been blind to the opportunity this presents.
For weeks state media has been playing up the disorder around the world as it praises Beijing’s own handling of the crisis, shoring up power and support at home – but it has also taken aim at those already sympathetic to China who could be pulled further into the fold.
[This seems a hopeful prospect for Griffiths, a true cheerleader for China.]
As the US has increasingly looked inward – both due to the requirements of the crisis and Trump’s own “America first” instincts –China has been playing up the importance of “multilateralism,” calling for the shoring up of global institutions and offering assistance to anyone that needs it.
[China is held up as a paragon of generosity, despite the fact that they created the pandemic in the first place, either by accident – at a wet market or a bio lab – or perhaps deliberately.]
In particular, China has emerged as the strongest defendant of the World Health Organization (WHO) as it faces pressure from Washington.
[Now we get to it – WHO and China. We have been recently told that any content about coronavirus that contradicts what WHO says about it will be censored. Now we see CNN supporting China as superior to the USA in its defense of WHO, as well as for its handling of the virus, through its superior authoritarian methods. What is behind this story by CNN? Who is really funding CNN?]
“The United Nations will be 75 this year, Covid-19 is reminding countries of the continuous, and increasing value of multilateralism in a closely connected world. We will only halt Covid-19 through solidarity. No country can do it alone,” the Communist Party-controlled state-owned mouthpiece China Daily said in an editorial this month.
[That’s fine coming from the country that gave the world this plague. Griffiths quotes the China Daily as his own personal propaganda. But how can Americans have solidarity with the oppressors of more than a billion people? As fine as the China model is, according to CNN, it was not the USA that caused the virus.
No, as poor as the USA may be in handling it, {and I don’t think the USA has done so badly, considering we are not an authoritarian nation} – it was not the USA – a democracy – that created the virus in the first place. That seems to be forgotten in this piece. If communism is so good, why do these viruses so frequently seem to come out of communist China?]
This advocacy of international cooperation might once have been put forward by the US. But just as China stepped into the role of free-trade defender as Trump pulled back, so too is it attempting to occupy Washington’s traditional space at the UN and other multinational bodies.
[The slave state oppressors talk fine but if they were in control of the world, they would enslave us all. I don’t want solidarity with Communist slavers]
…. Writing last month, the European Union’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, said there is an ongoing “global battle of narratives,” in which “China is aggressively pushing the message that, unlike the US, it is a responsible and reliable partner.”
[It cannot be said enough times, China is the cause of the pandemic. Only in a delusional world is it a reliable partner. It is true they are trying to promote themselves as a superior partner to the USA, as their pandemic destroys the economies of the free world. They can certainly rebuild more easily with a billion slaves who must do as they are commanded. This statement of CNN is analogous to someone who burned your house and your neighbors’ houses down, either by carelessness or on purpose, who then says he is here to help you and is more trustworthy than you or your neighbors who are all trying to rebuild their own houses.]
… This coronavirus diplomacy is paying off. In a tweet (written in Chinese) this month, Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif praised Beijing for coming to his country’s aid, saying the coronavirus was “deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.”
[Our enemies, Iran and China, are touted as models of cooperation which the USA lacks. Next CNN lauds all the countries that are lauding China]
Serbian President Aleksander Vucic was shown on Chinese state broadcaster CGTN kissing the country’s flag as he greeted a support team sent from Beijing. “Serbian people will never forget this kindness, China is an old friend and will continue to be for generations to come,” he said later.
Nor is it only Beijing’s traditional allies expressing their gratitude. Speaking to Italian media late last month, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, said the coronavirus response proved his government’s wisdom in signing up to Xi’s Belt and Road trade and infrastructure scheme. “Those that mocked us for (that) must now admit that investing in this friendship has allowed us to save lives in Italy,” Di Maio said, according to La Stampa.
China has been gradually increasing its influence among EU member states, particularly those from Eastern Europe.
Now, as the bloc faces the fallout of what appears to be a bungled coronavirus response, Beijing will not want to miss another opportunity to win friends and favors.
[Did Europe really bungle the pandemic that China gave them? China misled the world which helped the countries “bungle” their response. Each country responded as best they could to an unprecedented pandemic that China knew about for weeks [months?] before telling the world of its dangers.]
Discussion of China’s influence usually focuses on the country’s vast economy, and certainly trade ties have been useful in the past for gaining new allies. But this isn’t the only selling point for Beijing’s new fans.
[Yes, Bejing has “new fans” – like CNN – yet there is no outcry against their terrible human rights violations and their insane pollution of their own country.]
Just as crises around fake news and online disinformation have made it easier for China to push its model of internet sovereignty – one that has been happily embraced by those governments already keen to censor online dissent – so too has the current pandemic provided an opportunity and an excuse to pursue the type of authoritarian power exercised by Beijing.
[CNN is doing a lot to help set us up for the fall – to accept authoritarian power as highly beneficial, if not the only answer to solving the problems of the world.]
Last month, the Council of Europe warned that Hungary – long the EU’s least democratically inclined member – risked jeopardizing “democracy, rule of law and human rights” in its coronavirus response. States across the Middle East have used the virus as an opportunity to ramp up surveillance and controls on their populations, while in the Philippines, a group of lawyers has warned that emergency powers granted to President Rodrigo Duterte are “tantamount to autocracy.”
But for those pushing these changes, China could be perceived to be a strong argument that an empowered state is what is needed to respond to the pandemic.
[This is the real punch line of the whole story. Justifying authoritarianism. Let’s see what Griffiths is really saying here: Hungary …violates “the rule of law and human rights” … States across the Middle East have used the virus as an opportunity to ramp up surveillance and controls on their populations… in the Philippines … emergency powers granted to President Rodrigo Duterte are “tantamount to autocracy.” But … China could be perceived to be a strong argument that an empowered state is what is needed to respond to the pandemic.
Is that what we need to respond to the pandemic? An “empowered state?” And when the pandemic is defeated, does the empowered state give up its powers? CNN is openly arguing for a police state, a communist state for the US.]
Regardless of the many valid criticisms of how Beijing initially handled the crisis, it appears to have been able to get its domestic epidemic under control and the economy back on track better than many other countries.
[How do we know Bejing controlled its pandemic? We know it controls its people and that China has gained economically from the virus they unleashed on the world, in large part by weakening the rest of the world. But does it deserve the praise the CNN?]
The US government, meanwhile, presents something of an uneasy contrast: with a President musing about whether ingesting disinfectants could be used to treat the virus and encouraging protesters to demand an end to quarantine measures.
[The obligatory condemnation of the president comes with a disparaging comparison between the USA and communist China.]
Of course, the US is not the only model of a democracy, and the American system is actually something of an outlier compared to much of the developed world.
[Yes, America is, in many ways, more free than other countries, which makes it an outlier. Less freedom would make it more in sync with CNN’s ideal.]
… But just as “communist” China has always been a convenient specter for those railing against left-wing policies or a strong government in the West,
[Whoa! China is just a “convenient specter for those railing against strong [anti-freedom] government”? It is more than that: China is the argument against strong government. Their human rights record is a record of atrocities.]
So too is “democratic” US a handy foil for opponents of liberalism in China and elsewhere.
[Like CNN]
Brand China may be suffering as a result of the pandemic, but it is not the only one. Beijing also appears to have a greater appreciation than most of its rivals of the potential opportunities presented by the current crisis to emerge stronger and more influential than ever before.
[Yes, and that’s no accident either. China is poised to take advantage of the crisis they created and, according to Griffiths, the real winner here is China. Consider this story appeared at the top of Google search engine results for “coronavirus.” Griffiths dream seems to be a strong government [and weak people] here in the USA and everywhere. The end of freedom.
I’m sorry I cannot agree with one word of this CNN propaganda piece for China.
It actually shocks and sickens me.
