The 3 real issues behind the Wuhan Virus

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
38
2210

There are 3 things we need to think about in regards to the Wuhan virus.

1: Is China telling the truth?

At this stage we simply can not know for sure the true level of infection or death rates. The panic the truth could cause in a country already under economic stress is too dangerous for Officials to acknowledge so we simply can’t know how dangerous or how transmittable this novel virus is yet. Without knowing that it makes effectively countering a possible pandemic much more difficult.

2: The impact on the Chinese and global economy

The real dangers here beyond those who get sick and the small percentage who are currently dying (if we are to trust those Chinese numbers) is the enormous damage this could cause China’s already sick and weakening economy and the further impact that will have on the global economy. If this starts a recession, look for China to start militaristically pushing for confrontations in the disputed South China Sea as a means to divert domestic attention away from criticising the Communist Party. The Wuhan Virus legacy could be to destabilise an already unstable situation.

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Warning signs of a South China Sea clash

The spectre of China is looming ever larger over Asia. Now international relations experts are sounding alarms at the risks of an armed clash.

The spectre of China is looming ever larger over Asia. Now international relations experts are sounding alarms at the risks of an armed clash.

There are always tensions between states, says the ANU’s Professor John Blaxland, “but there is a gnawing sense that this decade may see us get closer to the brink than in generations”.

He, like the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), has offered a new assessment on our region’s potential for conflict.

Repeatedly featuring as a risk of “accidental or inadvertent” conflict is China. Specifically, China’s ambitions towards the East and South China Seas, and Taiwan.

3:  Pandemics are a new frontier of climate crisis

As biospheres deteriorate and humans encroach on more and more old habitats, old virus can spring back to life. Add to that the impoverished cheek to jowl living arrangements over population create, pandemics are a new frontier of the climate crisis.

The Wuhan virus is just the start.

38 COMMENTS

  1. Obviously a completely non partisan think tank Martyn, puts me in mind of the wilson centre.

    The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), founded in 1921, is a United States nonprofit think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. It is headquartered in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C. Its membership, which numbers 4,900, has included senior politicians, more than a dozen secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors and senior media figures.

    The CFR meetings convene government officials, global business leaders and prominent members of the intelligence and foreign-policy community to discuss international issues. CFR publishes the bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs, and runs the David Rockefeller Studies Program, which influences foreign policy by making recommendations to the presidential administration and diplomatic community, testifying before Congress, interacting with the media, and publishing on foreign policy issues.

  2. Sounds like the NZ schools are advising NZ parents about the controvirus and asking the satellite kids who go home to China but attend NZ schools, not to attend NZ school for the first few weeks to avoid the outbreak.

    Globalism in action. Risk of disease is huge under globalism, laissez-faire conditions.

    Look what happened in Samoa with measles and it was again being spread by dual nationals for the most part, coming between countries and spreading the virus which then killed the locals kids.

    I’m not against travel for work opportunities or dual nationals for a small percentage of skilled people in the population, but when it becomes the norm to fly around low level chefs, labourers, fast food workers and school kids and aged parents – just for some neoliberal agenda to bankrupt other countries social services and housing, something is wrong.

    It seems more important in NZ to get in cheap ovens and tat and, than stop Meth and bio hazards like PSA , mycoplasma bovis bacteria coming here.

    Likewise how can it be more efficient to fly in a fruit picker or gib stopper from across the globe with all the hazards of contamination within countries of a range of pathogens and bacteria and viruses, than get someone a few hours away/local to do the work and pay them adequately?

    No wonder the planet is melting from climate change and emissions. Disease control is out the window and a growing issue of locals being working poor, homeless, on Meth and looking for food parcels, as though they live in a third world country while avoiding the latest international hazards and ideologies from Thatcherism, controvirus to OZ bushfire smog.

    • What you say about fruit pickers is very true. How can we be paying 115000 the unemployment benefit when there is so much work around at any level be it unskilled or management. There are well paying jobs going begging so what is the problem how can these people be motivated.

    • Virtually none of those “satellite” kids are New Zealand citizens SaveNZ. China, like many Asian countries, Japan and India included, does not allow for duel citizenship. Therefore most of these kids and their families remain permanent residents of New Zealand and citizens of China.

      Since New Zealand is one of the only countries in the world which grants nearly identical rights to both permanent residents and citizens, this works out to be a fantastic deal for them. You and your family can have full access to New Zealand’s health, education, social services and the right to vote, without ever being citizen or even a resident for tax purposes. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of such a wonderful opportunity if a country was stupid enough to grant it to you while asking nothing in return.

      • I agree with you Simonm, our government is stupid but why don’t they stop permanent residency for new residents (aka OZ changed the law to stop new permanent residents taking advantage of them)? That’s the interesting question.

        Now COL’s big idea is to spend up big on roads (in Auckland the airport is VERY important), groan, eye roll, more congestion coming everybody’s way, more debt, more cars with no doubt more and more people taking advantage of NZ’s stupidest policies, punitive to locals, generous to internationals paying nothing here.

        • Oz only allows citizens to vote too. New Zealand is one of the few countries that allows permanent residents to do so.

          When you have 250,000 Chinese “living” in New Zealand (the majority of them permanent residents) and 75% of them vote National…well it doesn’t take a genius to do the maths…

  3. Also we all know the woke/neoliberals officials and government in NZ would prefer to put everyone at risk in NZ from the Wuhan Virus, than be accused of racism (woke) or losing/spending a short term $ (neoliberals).

    The Chinese propaganda campaign is working as so many NZ officials have ‘enjoyed’ the free China trips and donations and want to keep that gravy train going strong, rather than take a risk first approach to border control!

    Chinese businessman Yikun Zhang’s donations go beyond Simon Bridges
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/107902444/auckland-and-southland-mayors-receive-handouts-from-chinese-businessman-yikun-zhang

    Southland mayor in China with ‘$100k donor’
    https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/southland-mayor-china-100k-donor

    No wonder NZ is now being shown up by the Marshall Islands who are more pro active than us to minimise border risks and protect their nationals!

  4. This may be Gaia* fighting back: too many people on the planet.

    *Gaia is the name of the ancient Greek goddess of the Earth, and as a name it was recently revived to refer to the hypothesis formed by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, who postulate that the whole biosphere may be alive in that the Earth’s life forms are themselves responsible for regulating the conditions that make life on the planet possible.

  5. 1)You can guarantee we aren’t hearing the full picture
    2) likely large economic effects, depending on what is actually happening
    3) A long bow to draw.
    Not every bad thing is due to climate change.
    Maybe malaria or certain tropical diseases will worsen by mosquitos colonizing new areas with warmer climates, not so much a coronavirus.
    Definitely overpopulation and shared animal habitat are risk factors for many disease outbreaks.

  7. I’m not sure this kind of conspiracy-mongering is helpful. If anyone is aware of any *evidence* the Chinese health authorities are under-reporting the severity coronavirus, let’s have a link. Otherwise, why be any more suspicious of their (functioning) health system than we would if the (dysfunctional) US system was reporting on a new virus outbreak?

    So far, it appears that the new coronavirus is not even as deadly as the ‘flu. Our colleagues and friends in China report that a range of epidemic prevention measures are being taken in the provinces adjacent to Hubei (the province Wuhan is in), but nobody we’ve heard from knows anyone infected by the virus, let alone killed.

  9. ‘ “They All Knew!” – Chinese Furious At Virus-Fighting Officials Who Lied About Human Transmission’

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/they-all-knew-chinese-furious-virus-fighting-officials-who-lied-about-human

    ‘Study suggesting earlier human transmission fuels public anger –
    Findings by Chinese researchers contradict government accounts’

    https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus-outbreak/Study-suggesting-earlier-human-transmission-fuels-public-anger

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