Svetski Rat K(orona)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-asserts-claim-to-global-leadership-mask-by-mask-11585752077?mod=hp_lead_pos5

China Asserts Claim to Global Leadership, Mask by Mask
Beijing is providing equipment to hard-hit nations such as Italy, drawing a contrast with the U.S. and making sure everyone knows about it

Philip Wen and 
Drew Hinshaw
April 1, 2020 10:41 am ET

New York City’s Times Square stands empty, a testament to the threat the coronavirus poses to the biggest U.S. city.

Meanwhile, 7,500 miles to the east, young people celebrate the end of quarantine over hotpot in a crowded restaurant in the Chinese city of Chengdu.
And in Fujian province, a team of Chinese virus experts heads to the airport for a chartered flight to help an overwhelmed Italy.

The three images, posted close to each other on the Twitter feed of China’s official Xinhua News Agency one day last week, encapsulate a sweeping effort by the Communist Party to craft the story of the pandemic and cast China in the role of global savior.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking by video link to other leaders of the Group of 20 nations last week, said his country had made tremendous sacrifices to curtail the virus’s spread at home and would now help others.

China’s French embassy put it in starker terms in a tweet storm. “When the epidemic started to explode everywhere, it was China who the entire world asked for help, and not the United States, the ‘beacon of democracy,’” the embassy said. “It is China who lent a helping hand to more than 80 nations. Not the United States.”



A worker in a warehouse near Milan in Italy, a country hard-hit by the coronavirus, holds a box of medical supplies donated by China.
PHOTO: MOURA BALTI TOUATI/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

China, the country where the virus first appeared and claimed its first several thousand lives, is now using the global spread of the disease to bolster an increasing vocal, assertive bid for global leadership that is exacerbating a yearslong conflict with the U.S.
Combined with deliveries of essential goods, this public-relations push has enabled China to stake a claim to a void on the global stage left by an inward-looking America—while also helping Chinese leaders distract attention at home from criticism they mishandled the early stages of the outbreak.

China is sending doctors and medical supplies to Italy and other countries that have been hit hard by the coronavirus. WSJ’s Eric Sylvers in Milan explains how China is using soft power to change perceptions about its handling of the pandemic. Photo: Moura Balti Touati/Shutterstock

Over a two-week period in March, Chinese government agencies, companies and charities donated more than 26 million face masks, 2.3 million testing kits and other supplies to 89 countries, according to a review of state media reports and government and company statements. On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry said the number of countries receiving its coronavirus-related help has reached 120.

In hard-hit countries such as Italy, the aid has sparked ire that China was quicker to respond than closer allies such as Germany or the U.S.
For days, customs officers in Germany held up shipments of medical gear bound for its southern neighbors, to make sure the supplies weren’t going to profiteers. Nearby Czech Republic seized a shipment of masks intended for Italy.

Workers at a Budapest, Hungary, airport unload a shipment of medical aid from Shanghai, China.

PHOTO: ZSOLT SZIGETVARY/SHUTTERSTOCK

Meanwhile, China has sent Italy millions of masks in packages printed with the lyrics of an Italian opera aria.
Though France has since sent Rome a million masks, and although both French and German hospitals have taken patients transferred from Italy, the European help wasn’t as swift or well communicated. French officials said they struggled to compete with the story of China stepping in for a disjointed Europe. In early February, when China was still the epicenter of the outbreak, the European Union and the U.S. donated a combined 30 tons of medical equipment to China with little fanfare.

Pushing beyond material aid, China’s government has sent experts and teleconferenced guidance to medical staff in countries across Europe and Asia, in an international role similar to the one the U.S. played during the 2014 Ebola epidemic, when the U.S. Agency for International Development provided West African countries with critical aid and advice.

“It’s been striking how quickly they’ve been able to pivot,” said Andrew Small, an expert on EU-China relations at the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank, referring to Beijing’s attempts to change the narrative of the pandemic. “But I think basically almost as soon as the crisis started, they had a propaganda battle to win on this.”

China’s Foreign Ministry said China was repaying in kind the help and assistance received from countries earlier, as well as “bearing the responsibility of a great power.”
“China has no desire to seek credit, but also definitely doesn’t accept baseless accusations,” the ministry said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.

A key moment came on March 10, when President Xi visited Wuhan, the city where the virus emerged. Until then, the Communist Party seemed to be reeling. Critics, including Chinese social-media users, accused officials of an initial coverup that allowed the virus to take hold. There were doubts whether iron-fisted controls would stem the spread. By going to Wuhan, Mr. Xi signaled the party’s confidence in its approach.

On the same day, President Trump was downplaying the crisis in a meeting with senators, saying, “We’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

As cases multiplied in the U.S., Mr. Trump took to referring to the pathogen as the “Chinese virus,” implicitly blaming China for the pandemic. In response, China’s Foreign Ministry raised doubts about the virus’s origin, saying scientists had yet to determine beyond doubt it came from Wuhan.


Chinese medical experts prepared to leave Fujian Province on March 25 to fly to Italy and help it battle the coronavirus. Prior to this mission, China sent 22 people and 20 tons of medical supplies.[/h4]
PHOTO: WEI PEIQUAN/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian began promoting a theory that U.S. Army members who visited Wuhan in October introduced the virus, a claim Chinese state television examined as a serious possibility.

The U.S. State Department summoned China’s ambassador over the claims, and Western governments have since excoriated Mr. Zhao for spreading misinformation in the middle of a global crisis.

Simultaneously, Chinese diplomats, state-media organizations and charities started to announce provisions of aid to virus-stricken countries.

China had already sent supplies to hard-hit lands in the Middle East, chiefly Iran. Now donations and sales spread around the globe, often accompanied by glowing reports in state media.

Chinese companies jumped into the effort. Charities connected to Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., have donated more than 14 million masks, including a million Mr. Ma shipped, along with 500,000 testing kits, from Shanghai to Memphis, Tenn. Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co. has donated millions of masks to several EU member states including Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland and Ireland.
The Jack Ma Foundation declined to comment, referring reporters to its website and social-media accounts. Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly said most recipients expressed sincere gratitude, but “a small minority may have misunderstood our motives, which are simply to help people when and where we can.”

Some of China’s largest deliveries in Europe have gone to populist, nationalist or euroskeptic leaders who have pushed to play a part in China’s big international Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

On March 24, a plane from Shenzhen landed in Hungary carrying three million medical masks. Each package bore the words “Hajrá Magyarország!” or “Bring It On, Hungary!” which is a local football cheer and also is a campaign slogan for Prime Minister Viktor Orban. A delighted Mr. Orban toured the narrow pathways of the jam-packed jet tapping elbows with the Chinese crew and remarking, “It’s impressive!”



Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, and a colleague with virus-fighting supplies sent by China. Included were three million face masks, 100,000 tests and 86 ventilators. China labeled the boxes “Bring It On, Hungary!”
PHOTO: TAMAS KOVACS/MTI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

“The situation I see can be described as this: In the West, there is a shortage of basically everything,” Mr. Orban said, in comments relayed over Chinese state television. “The help we are able to get is from the East.”

Czech Republic, whose President Miloš Zeman has pushed to make his country “China’s gateway to Europe,” secured 1.1 million respirators, flown in from Shanghai.

President Trump said Monday that the U.S. plans to send about $100 million in medical equipment to Italy. At the height of Italy’s outbreak, though, supplies flowed in the opposite direction. In mid-March, the U.S. Air Force flew 500,000 coronavirus test swabs manufactured in Italy to Tennessee, sparking outrage and unkind comparisons to China.

“The United States is not offering leadership. Europe doesn’t exist…. For the first time in decades, West is lost,” said Francesco Sisci, an Italian Sinologist and columnist for the Catholic newspaper Settimana News. “In this vacuum, China’s offering an example. They are there, and they are helpful.”

At a press briefing last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he told allies, including Italy, that the U.S. was committed to helping them deal with the pandemic.
“The Chinese Communist Party poses a substantial threat to our health and way of life, as the Wuhan virus outbreak clearly has demonstrated,” Mr. Pompeo said.

In Italy, some of the strongest praise for China’s help has come from Luigi Di Maio, the populist foreign minister, who has pushed for Italy to participate in the Belt and Road initiative.


A billboard in Belgrade, Serbia, shows Chinese President Xi Jinping next to the words "Thank you brother Xi.” China has sent Serbia supplies to fight the spread of the coronavirus.[/h4]
PHOTO: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

The EU is starting to push back in the “global battle of narratives,” as the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, described it in a blog post.
“We must be aware there is a geopolitical component including a struggle for influence through spinning and the ‘politics of generosity,’” Mr. Borrell wrote. “Armed with facts, we need to defend Europe against its detractors.”

Tension over China’s role spilled over at a Foreign Ministry press briefing in Beijing on Monday, when spokeswoman Hua Chunying hit back at criticisms—voiced by the Netherlands and Spain—over the quality of Chinese-produced masks and testing-kits.
“When the epidemic first started in China, some of the materials we received from abroad were also substandard,” Ms. Hua said. “We chose to believe in and respect the good intentions of those countries and handled the issue with appropriate discretion.”
Ms. Hua bristled at suggestions that China’s donations were aimed at expanding its political influence. “Would they rather China watch on with folded arms, and be indifferent at this time?” she asked.

China’s Commerce Ministry said Tuesday it was strengthening quality checks on exports of coronavirus-related supplies to ensure they meet destination countries’ standards.
Talk of China’s success in fighting the coronavirus and offering assistance gives Beijing an opportunity to burnish its international credibility, as it did during the 2008 financial crisis when China unleashed an immense stimulus package that helped buoy the global economy.


Members of a Chinese anti-epidemic team on its way to Serbia prepared to depart from Guangzhou on March 21, 2020.
PHOTO: LIU DAWEI/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS

Chinese officials have emphasized Mr. Xi’s personal oversight of the fight against the epidemic. “Faced with this great epidemic, the philosophy of a community of shared future for mankind put forward by President Xi Jinping has seen its value for these times magnified,” Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui said in a press conference.

Following weeks without communication, Mr. Trump called Mr. Xi last Thursday to discuss cooperation in fighting the pandemic. In the days leading up to the call, Mr. Trump said he would stop using the term “Chinese virus.”

On the call, Mr. Xi said the two countries should unite to combat the pandemic, and China was willing to support the U.S., Chinese state media reported.

“China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus,” Mr. Trump wrote afterward on Twitter. “We are working closely together. Much respect!”
China has said its infection rates have dropped steadily, with health authorities reporting almost no new locally transmitted infections in the past week, though they remain on high alert against cases brought in from overseas.

This week, Chinese authorities began disclosing numbers of asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, following allegations it was artificially keeping infection numbers low. China said it had detected 1,541 asymptomatic cases as of Monday, with 205 coming from overseas.

Vilmos Tehenészfiú wrote:Anyways, da ne bude da samo serem u vezi nikova, evo jednog konstruktivnog predloga:

- moderacija/admin nasilno promene nikove svima
- svi novi nikovi su generisani po sablonu anon-xxxxxx, gde je xxxxxx random sestocifreni broj
- dakle novi nikovi bi bili "anon-743891", "anon-970423' i tako dalje. Nisam ja ovo izmislio, tako je nekad radio anon.penet.fi na Usenetu.
- ili nema niko avatar ili svi imaju isti
- svi podforumi ostaju isti, svi topici su i dalje tu, ali su prazni. Prvog dana svaki topik ima 0 postova, sve krece iz pocetka.

Na ovaj nacin cete sasvim sigurno zajebati spijune.

No Country wrote:Видећете за једно пар недеља како то изгледа када се Америка мобилише око неког проблема. Ја се много више бринем за Турке него за Амере. Ништа ми се не свиђа њихова крива.

Sotir wrote:

No Country wrote:Видећете за једно пар недеља како то изгледа када се Америка мобилише око неког проблема. Ја се много више бринем за Турке него за Амере. Ништа ми се не свиђа њихова крива.

За пар недеља?
Чекају топлије време?

Зашто мислиш да ће се ишта променити ако досад курцем нису мрднули.?

No Country wrote:Видећете за једно пар недеља како то изгледа када се Америка мобилише око неког проблема. Ја се много више бринем за Турке него за Амере. Ништа ми се не свиђа њихова крива.

Talason wrote:

Имају све што је потребно, а имају и потпуно другачији приступ него нормални људи. У стању су да ово савладају и имају све ресурсе. Проблем је једино Довв Јонес и како то урадити уз минимални трошак. Колатералне жртве су неизбежне у начину како решавају проблеме. Сети се са чим су ушли у други светски рат и они и УК, а са чиме су изашли из њега. Све светске водеће фирме које производе оно што је потребно за респираторе, ако изузмемо БАСФ, су америчке. Поцркаће већином сиротиња, али ефишенси енд прогрес из аурс онсе а мор.

A KADA PROĐE PANDEMIJA – objavljeno u dnevniku „Politika“ od 25.3.2020.
25/03/2020 od Nebojša Katić

Koliko god paradoksalno zvučalo, kovid 19 je dar s neba za zapadne vladajuće političke i ekonomske strukture. Pandemija će imati razorne ekonomske posledice, ali velika ekonomska kriza je bila neminovna i bez nje. Početak krize se jasno video još u septembru 2019. Pandemija će sada poslužiti da se ta činjenica sakrije, a neugodna pitanja gurnu pod tepih.

Za novu krizu tako neće biti kriv ekonomski model zapadnih država, koji se ni za jotu nije promenio od Velike recesije 2008/2009. Za krizu neće biti kriva brutalna budžetska štednja, ni stagnacija primanja najvećeg dela zaposlenih, niti besramno ignorisanje strahovitog rasta nejednakosti. Ne, sa sistemom je sve u redu, ali je virus, eto, pokvario idilu.

Zapadne države, i sve druge koje se na njih ugledaju, imaće izgovor da bar još jednu deceniju nastave sprovođenje destruktivne ekonomske i socijalne politike. Do krajnjih granica će se testirati izdržljivost sluđenog javnog mnjenja koje će poverovati da je smisao egzistencije samo u tome da se ostane živ. Nije slučajno da se sistematski podstiče histerija koja je svet dovela u stanje kolektivne psihoze u kojoj svaki totalitarni eksperiment može biti prihvaćen bez pobune.

Sve velike ekonomske krize, od trijumfa neoliberalizma osamdesetih godina prošlog veka do danas, imale su isti uzrok – veliki, kombinovani rast zaduženosti građana, države i privrede. U drugoj polovini 2019. visina globalnih dugova je dostigla neverovatnih 350.000 milijardi dolara i prešla je 320 procenata globalnog bruto domaćeg proizvoda. Obe brojke su daleko iznad nivoa koji je viđen 2008. i koji je tada izazvao krizu strašnih razmera.

Sistem već deceniju funkcioniše od danas do sutra – novac se neprekidno štampa i kamate se održavaju na apsurdno niskom nivou kakav nije viđen u modernoj istoriji. Stari dugovi se vraćaju samo novim zaduživanjem, ali neodrživ rast kompanijskih dugova počinje da urušava finansijski sistem. U SAD je u septembru 2019. počela ozbiljna kriza likvidnosti i krenulo je dodatno, veliko štampanje para. Stručna javnost, međunarodne organizacije i globalni mediji su se pravili da ne vide šta se događa. A onda je došao virus. Za razliku od prethodnih kriza koje su bile krize tražnje, ova danas je istovremeno i kriza tražnje i kriza ponude jer je veliki deo privrede (pogotovo servisni sektor) stao. To je kombinacija kakva se sreće samo u sankcijama i ratovima.

U ovom trenutku zapadne zemlje planiraju da naštampaju nekoliko hiljada milijardi dolara – za početak. Ovu ogromnu dodatnu emisiju novca niko neće dovesti u pitanje. Niko neće zapaziti kako se u krizama novac volšebno pojavljuje i da ga uvek ima kada banke i velike korporacije dopadnu nevolja. Novca uvek ima dovoljno za naoružavanje, za vojne vežbe, za brutalne vojne intervencije. Nema ga dovoljno samo za socijalna davanja, za medicinsku opremu, za plate zdravstvenih radnika, za naučna istraživanja i obrazovanje. Zapadni sistemi su sjajni kada treba „proizvoditi“ finansijske derivate, alate za gubljenje vremena na društvenim mrežama, za holivudske proizvode za ispiranje mozga. Posrću samo kada treba brinuti o ljudima – kada zatrebaju zaštitne maske, respiratori, bolnički kapaciteti, lekovi, ili kakva druga realna dobra.

Kada pandemija prođe i prebroje se mrtvi, tada će nove, ovoga puta ekonomske žrtve doći na red. Finansijskim intervencijama spasiće se velike banke i korporacije, ali će svi drugi doživeti veliki šok. Nezaposlenost će naglo skočiti i najteže će pogoditi najugroženije delove stanovništva – one milione koji nemaju ni zdravstvenu, ni socijalnu zaštitu, ni ušteđevinu, već imaju samo dugove. Žrtve siromaštava niko neće brojati, niti će objavljivati dnevne biltene bolesnih ili umrlih zbog siromaštva.

Kriza će ponovo unesrećiti male i slabe ekonomije. Kapital, koji se već povlači iz država u razvoju, povlačiće se još brže. Slabe ekonomije će biti na kolenima, jer je njihov kapacitet da pomognu svoju privredu nedovoljan. Niko neće ni primetiti da moćne zemlje koje hiljadama milijardi subvencionišu svoje kompanije, koristeći pandemiju kao pokriće, grubo narušavaju pravila globalne tržišne igre – pravila koja su upravo oni postavili.

Potom će bogate države i MMF ponuditi pomoć u vidu kredita, nabacujući već zaduženim zemljama novu dužničku omču. Za naštampanu dolarsku ili evro „hartiju“ slabe države će još intenzivnije razmenjivati svoja realna dobra – robu, imovinu i resurse. Domaći eksperti, zaljubljenici u malu državu i slobodno tržište, objašnjavaće da tu nema govora o otimačini, već da to Zapad investira svoju mukom stečenu štednju. Nesretne i nesposobne vlade će nasedati na iste stare trikove i verovaće istim savetnicima. A građani, oni će biti sretni što su „pretekli“ – samo neka je glava na ramenu, makar stomak bio i prazan. Varaju se one dobre duše koje veruju da će nas kriza nečemu naučiti i da će svet proći katarzu. Posle pandemije svet će biti još suroviji.

https://nkatic.wordpress.com/2020/03/25/a-kada-prode-pandemija-objavljeno-u-dnevniku-politika-od-25-3-2020/

beatakeshi wrote:Nisam siguran za pokornost raje i legitimitet vlada i sistema. Njegova prognoza podrazumeva statičnost a mislim da će toga biti ponajmanje.