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China reclassifies dogs as pets instead of livestock
China's Ministry of Agriculture issued new guidelines Wednesday that reclassify dogs as pets instead of livestock, part of the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
"As far as dogs are concerned, along with the progress of human civilization and the public concern and love for animal protection, dogs have been 'specialized' to become companion animals ... and they will not be regulated as livestock in China," the notice said.
The coronavirus is believed to have originated in horseshoe bats, which may have passed the disease to other wildlife species for sale in the markets of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected.
Following the outbreak, China banned the breeding, trading and consumption of wildlife.
Also at Reuters.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:18AM (5 children)
No. China is a country. There certainly are cultural traits common to the people in China, but that only means that Chinese culture exists, not that China is a culture.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:33AM (4 children)
I would deg to biffer. China has never been a country until the Warlord Kiang Kai Shek tried to make it one. Or perhaps 孫逸仙, but when 毛泽东 took over, really China went back to being an Empire, and did not emerge to be a "country" until Tricky Dick Nixon visited. And they still are not used to to. Love how the elections for Parliment in Taiwan where advertised as the first democratic elections since 1949, when actually they were the first in China, ever, and then only a small bandit province of China.
No, China is a culture. Ethnicity does not define Chinese-ness, as much as the Han would like to think so. And Vietnam, Singapore, Korea(s) and Japan all fall under Chinese civilization. History, philosophy, religion, writing systems, Confucianism. Only recently has China realized it is only one among many, and it has not quite sunk in, yet. Maxwell, give me Tibet for $500!
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday April 11 2020, @01:28PM (2 children)
I wonder what your definition of “country” is. Because I would certainly consider an empire to be a country.
In any case, China is a political entity. It is neither an ethnicity nor a culture.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:34PM
Ireland (N and S) and Scotland would like a word with you.
Puerto Rico would like a word with you.
Etc.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:44AM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday April 11 2020, @02:49PM
Qin Shi Huang would definitely disagree with you. I mean, how badass do you have to be to have your name on the map 2200 years after you conquered the relevant territory? And there were several successor dynasties that controlled a large percentage of the territory now known as modern China.
Like a lot of countries, China has had times when it was internally divided, and also had changes to what territory they actually controlled on their edges, but that makes them no different from most other modern countries, from Russia to Germany to the USA.
And this is all to the degree that the word "country" means anything other than "an territory under a common governmental structure at any particular time in history", of course. The concept that it meant anything other than that was invented in approximately the late 1800's to convince people to fight in wars while the kings and other top brass stayed safe at home.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.