Covid 19: Sino global relations

[Oyster28catcher]

China ‘ramping up’ the supplies to the UK. They have built new factories to meet the worldwide demand. Note the ‘UK and China - United we stand’ branding.

The branded boxes were copied from the British Chamber of Commerce suggestions, I believe.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I don’t hate the entire nation of China, it’s too many people and stereotyping isn’t my thing.

I am just fucked off at the lifestyles of a minority of them and think they need to sort their own shit out.

Had this happened in England, with people eating particularly gruesome stuff, to cause it. I’d be all over stopping it myself but they are seemingly letting it happen still, apparently the wet markets where it happened are back open, according to the Telegraph, Mirror etc. which I’m sure you can take for a pinch of salt but still, it wouldn’t surprise me.

The Easter European who reports into me came back from China. She’s not normally racist and has been all over the Far East, subcontinent, south east Asia etc. She’s already been to Cambodia and Myanmar in January this year for example and loved it. Her exact words were and apologies to anyone for any offence “I Love Asia and the people, but the Chinese are dirty bastards, I realised it quickly there”.

I appreciate this is inflammatory language but she was speaking to me honestly and confidentially and she said others in the region thought that of them.

Well Israel is complicated considering its surroundings and I agree it’s another thread, so I won’t comment on that.

I don’t see you as a commie, I suspected it though, there are a few on here no doubt.

My old house mate said almost those exact words about the Chinese n’all.

He used to work as security at a Manchester uni halls of residence that was mainly full of Chinese students (that’s students from China, not students of British-Chinese ethnicity).

“They’re nice people but they’re filthy bastards” were his words.

Said they shat by standing on the toilet seat and squatting to shit and if shit went anywhere/everywhere they didn’t care and they never cleaned it up. Said they’d shave their pubes in the toilets and never clean them up. Said they’d leave rubbish bags for days either in their rooms or just sat outside their doors. Said they spat everywhere, even inside the hallways and corridors of the halls of residences. Said they’d invade personal space to talk to you and cough in your face without any moving away or covering their mouth as if it was normal/acceptable like breathing. He didn’t witness any food preparation but he did see a lot of the mess that was left and not cleaned up after they’d finished cooking and said they’d leave kitchens in a mess for days.

Said they were nice and he never had to get involved in any disturbances nor notice any vandalism or drunken behaviour. Just that they were culturally very distant from us when it comes to cleanliness.

Also said they used to joke that we smelt funny because they could smell milk on us (they don’t drink milk).

I didn’t know a great deal about their meat markets and eating practices before this pandemic but having read about it, the world needs to be on China’s case.

If it was Great Britain that was like that and I found out that we were the root of a lot of animal related viral crossovers, I’d be wanting us to change.

 

[aguero93:20]

We should brick all their windows and torch all their cars in retaliation.

 

[bluemonkey71]

Whilst Trump is a lunatic, I agree that pumping 400 million a year into an organisation that it is totally useless is a fair assessment. China should have been locked down immediately. WHO Are complicit with this.

 

[aguero93:20]

China should have been locked down immediately. WHO Are complicit with this.

Agree, they should have had their tanks on the lawn and their anti aircraft guns ready.

 

[Ban-jani]

One thing surprises me about certain people and it’s many in Britain too.

It’s the almost fetish to walk down the street and be stopped by bayonets.

The lauding over China is utterly sickening and anyone engaging in it is at worst, a believer in the tooth fairy, at worst a supporter of murder and totalitarianism.

 

[AlgarveBlu]

Have we got any dirt on Sawyers so that we can discredit him as well?

A former head of Britain’s spy agency, MI6, has accused China of concealing information about its coronavirus from the rest of the world.

Sir John Sawers, who ran MI6 between 2009 and 2014, was responding to Donald Trump’s decision to withhold US funding from the World Health Organisation, on the grounds it had “covered up” the spread of the Covid-19. He told the BBC it would be more appropriate to criticise Beijing. He said:

There is deep anger in America at what they see as having been inflicted on us all by China, and China is evading a good deal of responsibility for the origin of the virus, for failing to deal with it ... initially.

... Intelligence is about acquiring information which has been concealed from you by other states and other actors. Now, there was a brief period in December and January when the Chinese were indeed concealing this from the West.

Sawyers, who has also served as the UK’s permanent representative to the UN, said the pandemic would have an impact on international relations.

The trends that are under way anyway, the growing dependence on technology, the weakening of international bodies like the United Nations, the shift of economic power to Asia - I think these are all going to move forward more rapidly now as in the context of this pandemic.

 

[birch villa]

We should brick all their windows and torch all their cars in retaliation.

Job for the dippers that

 

[BlueAnorak]

China have won WW3 without firing a shot.
Enjoy the new world.

 

[Chippy_boy]

So if the world came together and sanctioned them, give it a month, see them change their stance, we can live without TVs and toasters for a while.

Good luck with that.

The fact is China will only do what it wants to do. We may be able to persuade them to do the right thing - they are not our enemy. But we aren't in any position to force them to do anything. You seriously underestimate the extent to which our entire way of life is dependent upon out from China.

 

[inchy14]

Good luck with that.

The fact is China will only do what it wants to do. We may be able to persuade them to do the right thing - they are not our enemy. But we aren't in any position to force them to do anything. You seriously underestimate the extent to which our entire way of life is dependent upon out from China.

Then maybe it’s time to change our way of life. Maybe it’s time to start doing things and buying things a little closer to home, time more manufacturing became localised instead of global, it may be the one goid thing that comes out of all this.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Good luck with that.

The fact is China will only do what it wants to do. We may be able to persuade them to do the right thing - they are not our enemy. But we aren't in any position to force them to do anything. You seriously underestimate the extent to which our entire way of life is dependent upon out from China.

I think that's pretty much true. It would take mass manufacturing being set up again, with all the higher costs, to offset it. Even then, it wouldn't hold for much of the world.

Doesn't China own a significant amount of the US national debt? They've been very effective at inserting themselves into world economics. They've spent heavily in Africa.

 

[Vic]

Did I say that?

You said you wouldn't trust them so why would you trust them to give the world information that would help anyone create a vaccine?

So you would trust them with something?

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I think that's pretty much true. It would take mass manufacturing being set up again, with all the higher costs, to offset it. Even then, it wouldn't hold for much of the world.

Doesn't China own a significant amount of the US national debt? They've been very effective at inserting themselves into world economics. They've spent heavily in Africa.

They’ve built so many roads in Africa that even some very poor African countries have better roads than Britain.

 

[Chippy_boy]

Then maybe it’s time to change our way of life. Maybe it’s time to start doing things and buying things a little closer to home, time more manufacturing became localised instead of global, it may be the one goid thing that comes out of all this.

Oh, it most definitely is.

For example, I know of a number of the world's largest pharmaceutical businesses are currently planning to reconfigure their manufacturing and supply chain capacities in order to become less dependent upon Chinese production. This is happening not only in pharma, but across a wide range of sectors, right now.

It's got nothing to do with "punishing China" however, it's purely economics and sound business sense. Their supplies have been heavily disrupted and it's woken them up to the fact that they are probably too dependent upon single sources of supply and therefore are at risk. And incidentally they are looking to move production into the EU, so in the long run, could be good for us. Oh wait, we're leaving the EU. Bugger.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

They’ve built so many roads in Africa that even some very poor African countries have better roads than Britain.

Really? That's the type of thing, yes, they've gone after the oil etc, and offered huge aid in return. It's quite a well-organised plan, and seems to have not been noticed by many, at the same time as US/UK cut foreign support.

They should get to Namibia then, which barely has tarmac. We drove along the desert stretch that Fury Road was filmed on - 100 km of boneshaking flat desert! Someone's fitbit had them doing 22000 steps that day from the vibrations.

 

[Mon Autre]

Then maybe it’s time to change our way of life. Maybe it’s time to start doing things and buying things a little closer to home, time more manufacturing became localised instead of global, it may be the one goid thing that comes out of all this.

People won't change their habits because they don't want to/can't afford to pay more for things manufactured locally. People herald the idea of British jobs and buying the British but they will still pay £2 for a t-shirt manufactured in a sweat shop in Bangladesh rather than pay £20 for one made in the UK.

 

[Chippy_boy]

People won't change their habits because they don't want to/can't afford to pay more for things manufactured locally. People herald the idea of British jobs and buying the British but they will still pay £2 for a t-shirt manufactured in a sweat shop in Bangladesh rather than pay £20 for one made in the UK.

Spot on. Dangerously veering towards "political discussion" territory not allowed in this thread but I will risk it ;-)

The people moaning about the evils of "globalization" are the same people happy to reap the rewards of it every single day and many of whom would be impacted worst if prices went up across the board as a result of us moving production back to the west.

 

[Indaparkside]

People won't change their habits because they don't want to/can't afford to pay more for things manufactured locally. People herald the idea of British jobs and buying the British but they will still pay £2 for a t-shirt manufactured in a sweat shop in Bangladesh rather than pay £20 for one made in the UK.

How I miss primark:)

 

[Deleted member 77198]

People won't change their habits because they don't want to/can't afford to pay more for things manufactured locally. People herald the idea of British jobs and buying the British but they will still pay £2 for a t-shirt manufactured in a sweat shop in Bangladesh rather than pay £20 for one made in the UK.

I always pluck for the Made In England M12 Fred Perry polo rather than the usual M6300 (don’t know where that’s made).

It’s £15 more expensive.

But I agree with the public in general not wanting to do that.