And there is AP report that showed China delayed making things public for a crucial 6 day period from January 14-20....
https://apnews.com/68a9e1b91de4ffc166acd6012d82c2f9
https://apnews.com/68a9e1b91de4ffc166acd6012d82c2f9
What do I care about the opinion of some American researcher about things China did? He may have expertise on viruses, but he has no special expertise in the political realm. And he is doing research in China and that would be jeopardized if he criticized China, right?
What matters are the facts I laid out which as usual you don't respond to but try to find to find some expert to give an opinion or use xenophonia or the conspiracy card. Try making arguments
All you have really shown is that you like China a heck of a lot more than America.
You know, in the last 100 years the US has done a heck of a lot more to preserve the free prosperous Western world than China has.
All those countries with nice healthcare systems and perks for their workers...probably would have not have those things but for the actions of the US in WWI, WWII and the Cold War.
"First, I think our health care system is better than China's health care system is."
Is it? When it comes to corona? No has an anti viral that works, so treatment today consists of supporting the patient's breathing while their body fights the virus...
The only difference between the US and China? Maybe more ventilators in the US?More per capita?
However in China, they quarantined Wuhan and sent in 40,000 health care workers and built a a special facility to isolate and treat the most serious cases.They also sent in equipment from the rest of China, concentrating it in Wuhan...
You think the US can isolate the hot spots and send in reinforcements for health care from elsewhere? I seriously doubt it. Until yesterday the CDC couldn't even get reports on tests from all the States and independent labs.
And why is the US response so disorganized?
The Trump Administration fired the Pandemic response team that Obama set up after the Ebola outbreak.
Yet, you have this praise for a totalitarian regime where there is no freedom of speech or other protections of the individual from the arbitrary actions of the government.
This is Maria Van Kerkhove, an American epidemiologist and a graduate of Cornell and Stanford. She is the Technical Lead of Covid-19 Response at WHO. She issued technical guidance on January 10th noting that there might be human-to-human transmission, based on prior experience with SARS and MERS. She presents WHO’s guidance to the world EVERY DAY in Geneva, since January 10th. WHO Timeline - COVID-19
Who cares if loans have to get repaid when without them the country cannot wage war
So criticism of the US--Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam, Chile--has to be kept in perspective
The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, code-named Operation PBSUCCESS, was a covert operation carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954. It installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian rulers in Guatemala.
If your expert responded to the facts I laid out then I could assess what he is saying. But he just made a conclusory accusation without content. Thats not worth anything, expert or not.
A lot of good stuff in the world happened under PAX Americana from WWII until now. It wasn't perfect or even remotely close to perfect but then again nothing ever is.
And China is now trying to expand its soft power around the globe. By being a creditor to B&R countries...it is able to exert control over thise countries. It is not a benign, altruistic project. It is designed to further China's economic and political interests.
And I see you keep talking about a 6 day delay
This is Maria Van Kerkhove, an American epidemiologist and a graduate of Cornell and Stanford. She is the Technical Lead of Covid-19 Response at WHO. She issued technical guidance on January 10th noting that there might be human-to-human transmission, based on prior experience with SARS and MERS
but how does that compare with what happened with Cambodia under Pol Pot, the millions killed under Stalin in Russia, the millions dying under Mao, etc?
The US played a major part in keeping the world free and prosperous and safe from a militaristic Germany in WWI, a ruthless Fascist Germany in WWII and a ruthless, soul-depriving Communism in the Cold War. You can point to many mistakes we made...but those facts trump the complaints about our mistakes. By many orders of magnitude.
I've worked professionally in Africa and observed the terrible and corrupt things that China is doing, I've seen first hand evidence of this.
The second and opposing perception of the partnership between Beijing and Africa is a pro-China one. This view is adopted mostly in Africa.
According to the proponents of this narrative, China is a saviour - a trustworthy ally of Africa. They view China, a country that does not have a history of colonial aspirations in Africa, as a partner which could provide much-needed funding without any strings attached. They also believe Beijing understands and respects Africa's priorities.
Moreover, China has a reputation among African countries for being an actor that respects other cultures and states. This view is widely held by many African heads of state.
Much of the academic literature on the China-Africa partnership unjustifiably perpetuates the Sino-phobic narrative. The media also wrongly portrays China as a predatory actor in Africa. For instance, while it is widely reported that China invests more in the extractive industry than in other sectors, the fact that the extractive industry amounts only to one-third of the total Chinese investment in Africa is barely mentioned.
The other two-thirds of China's investment in Africa is in infrastructure, construction, electricity production, manufacturing and finance. In fact, compared with the US and other developed countries, China's share in extractive investments in Africa, in the form of mining, for example, is lower.
.It doesnt matter that we came in late or that we used bad tactics in WWI. What matters is that we had fresh troops and we pushed the Germans back. If we had not come into the war, France and Britain would have been broken by Ludendorf well before they starved from the blockade. They barely held him off until we got there
The British & French were getting stronger, improving their material superiority over the German army. At the beginning of 1918 they expected to be able to roll over the German army in the west by early 1919, whatever the Germans did, not because of numbers of men, but because of their much greater strength in artillery, tanks, aircraft, lorries to supply the armies, etc.
Germany’s allies were losing in the Balkans & in the Middle East, & the Austro-Hungarians were weakening in Italy while the Italians were getting stronger.
The German high command understood this. They didn’t know exact Allied plans, but they could see how the balance of forces was moving against them & feared what was to come. The USA had joined the war, & while its army was small to start with (& initially refused to learn from the British & French, & repeated their 1914–15 mistakes), it was rapidly expanding & improving.
So, they gambled everything on the 1918 Spring Offensive in the west. It was an all-or-nothing throw of the dice. If it succeeded, maybe they could knock France out of the war, or at least induce it to agree to talk peace, & thus cripple the Entente. They threw everything they could into it.
And it failed.
They won battles, but they couldn’t maintain the momentum. The advancing armies outran Germany’s ability to supply them, & their losses could only be partly replaced. One marker of the way the war was going was that some German attacks faltered because soldiers stopped to loot food, boots, etc. from trenches they captured: they were hungry & ragged. They were also demoralised by seeing how much better the Entente armies lived.When the Ludendorff Offensive overran British and French positions in mid-1918, German troops were amazed by the plenty they found in British and French canteens and supply depots, with luxuries that they hadn't seen for two or three years. Germany was on the edge of starvation, and the army wasn't immune. What made it worse is that the German people had been told that the British were being starved by the U-Boat blockade. It was a terrible shock to see that this wasn't the case.
The Entente, on the other hand, could make good all its losses, both in manpower & material, & was able to keep its front-line troops supplied.
The German command kept ordering attacks, but after the initial successes, the Entente armies were able to hold them, while simultaneously building up reserves, ammunition stockpiles, etc. for a counter-offensive, & eventually they attacked. Once they did, the Germans were unable to stop them. The front line moved steadily east, & German resistance steadily weakened. Germany was calling up boys who wouldn’t reach conscription age until 1919, rushing them to the front part-trained, & struggling to find rifles & uniforms for them. Even with them, the army was shrinking, & getting weaker even faster than manpower strength was dropping. Artillery, vehicles, aircraft, ammunition - all were being lost or used up faster than German industry could make more, while the enemy grew stronger in absolute, not just relative terms.
Meanwhile, there were simultaneous Entente offensives in Mesopotamia, the Levant, the Balkans & Italy - & all succeeded. Germany’s allies all collapsed.
At the end of October 1918 Germany stood alone. Its allies had all capitulated. Its army in the west was in full retreat & the high command could see no way to hold the Entente advance. Entente armies were advancing unopposed into Austria-Hungary towards its southern borders, & there were no German soldiers to face them. Bohemia & Moravia, on Germany’s borders & terrifyingly close to Berlin, seceded from A-H & the new state associated itself with the Entente.
So, there you are. It lost the fighting. Its enemies had more people & more industry, & once they were fully mobilised, & their armies had caught up with (& in some areas surpassed) Germany’s training, tactics & organisation, there was only one possible outcome.
As for China's Belt & Road and the opinion of African recipients...Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts.
The US suffered 264,000 casualties (so clearly more than 500,000 reached the front some point).
Thirdly, the American Meuse-Argonne offensive finished the Germans
Throughout these three final months, the Canadian troops saw action in several areas. The first was near the enemy salient on August 8 where the Canadian Corps (along with the New Zealanders, Australians, French and British) was charged with the task of spearheading the assault on the German forces in Amiens. In the subsequent battle, the morale of the German forces was badly shaken. In Ludendorff's words, the battle of Arras was a "black day for the German army."[67] After their breakthrough at Amiens, the Canadians were shifted back to Arras and given the task of cracking the Hindenburg Line in the Arras area.
Between August 26 and September 2, the Canadian Corps launched multiple attacks near the German front at Canal du Nord. On September 27, 1918, the Canadian Corps broke through the Hindenburg Line by smashing through a dry section of the Canal du Nord.[68] The operation ended in triumph on October 11, 1918, when the Canadian forces drove the Germans out of their main distribution centre in the Battle of Cambrai.
In the final one hundred days of the war, the Canadian Corps marched successfully to Mons. However, in this period, the Canadian Corps suffered 46,000 casualties.