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China's devious move under cover of virus
As outbreaks debilitate the US navy, there are fears China may be using the coronavirus pandemic as cover for asserting control over the South China Sea.
A Vietnamese fishing boat has been rammed and sunk. Military aircraft have landed at its artificial-island fortresses. And large-scale naval exercises has let everyone know China's navy is still pushing the boundaries, hard.
Meanwhile, the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group has retreated from the contested waterway in an unscheduled return to Guam – with hundreds of cases of COVID-19 on board.
China's Peoples Liberation Army knows this presents an opportunity.
"The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly lowered the US Navy's warship deployment capability in the Asia-Pacific region," an article on its official website declares.
The website insists not a single one of its soldiers, sailors or pilots had contracted COVID-19. Instead, the crisis had served to strengthen the combat readiness and resolve of the Chinese military.
That has international affairs analysts worried that even a short-term withdrawal of US and international from the East and South China Seas could give Beijing the opportunity it has been waiting for.
"I think China is exploiting the US Navy's coronavirus challenges to improve its position in the South China Sea by giving the appearance it can and will operate there at will while the US is hamstrung," former Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Centre director Carl Schuster told CNN.
Previously:
(2020-01-09) China Initiates Conflict with Indonesia in the South China Sea
(2019-12-21) Malaysian Top Envoy: China's 'Nine-Dash Line' Claim 'Ridiculous'
(2019-11-22) US Warships Sail in Disputed South China Sea Amid Tensions
(2019-05-14) China Builds New Type 002 Mega Carrier as the Age of Sea Power Wanes
(2018-05-13) China Begins Sea Trials for its First Domestically Developed Aircraft Carrier
(2017-12-24) World's Largest Amphibious Plane in Production Takes Flight in China
(2017-05-25) US Warship Challenges China's Claims in South China Sea
(2017-04-26) China Launches Aircraft Carrier
(2017-03-14) Japan to Send its Biggest Warship to the South China Sea
(2017-01-13) Chinese State Media Boasts About its New Electronic Reconnaissance Ship
(2016-07-14) China's South China Sea Claims Rejected By "Binding" but Unenforceable Tribunal Ruling
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @12:11PM (1 child)
"They did very well if they were really the first to get it."
If you believe their numbers, then yes they did very well.
We now have a fair selection of example countries to look at and I haven't seen one that looks anything like China.
It seems like the tooth fairy came in and made things ok as soon as their total got to 80k.
If their numbers are real, then they really ought to tell the world how to replicate their success.
I'd like to believe their numbers and understand what they did, but given that the government has the ability and strong incentive to cook the books, let's see some other evidence first.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:43AM
Most have same numbers. You have to be quite dumb not to see what China said as reality. They said about 12% of the confirmed cases needed hospitalization and 50% of hospitalizations needed ventilators. They had 4% mortality. These numbers fit very very well with rest of the world data given Chinese demographics. Also considering that 25-50% of infected are the ones with symptoms, you can easily see that actual cases in China were probably in the 200k range. And these numbers repeat everywhere.
Most outside of China pretended like if COVID19 only attacks "chinaman" or have had their own shit excuses about China like "bad air" or trying to assume that China had millions infected. But now reality is sinking in. China told the world reality as best as they knew it. And the world thought China was lying. Well, lookey and see now. And now China was not lying.... except for the people that are either too dumb to know what they are arguing about or just have some pre-existing anti-China disease.
Are you fucking serious??? They did!!! They shut down public movement. No fucking trips outside your buildings! No "walking in the park" or going for Easter. Your elevator in 40 storey residential building is shut down. You sit in your house or you get arrested and put into enforced quarantine camp. The virus cannot live a month without new host. China sacrificed 1-2 months of their citizens lives to make sure that virus died because they had no idea who exactly had it. They also didn't want to make mass graves for 10 million. But rest of the world??? Fuck no! Most people can't stay in their house 1-2 days, never mind 1 month. So virus survives.
These "lockdowns" do nothing except slow down spread. They will never kill the virus. And now since the virus is endemic ... do I need to connect the last dots for you too??