[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/masayoshi-son-breaks-twitter...
No good deed goes unpunished, i guess.
Son has long been criticised in Japan of deception via selective facts. The reputation may or may not be justified (he might just not be good at expressing himself and never felt the need to clarify), but his recent tweets are very on-brand with a bold claim and little detail, and it’s understandable for the Japanese to express the same doubts based on his persumed track record.
The United States government spends far more on healthcare than any other nation on Earth. That's not including private health costs.
South Korea has the capacity to test 20,000 per day and has 1/6th the population.
Yes. Roche just got FDA approval on a SARS-COV-2 test that will take four (4) hours that works with two of their (whatever you call the machine) models. Per Roche there are around 110 of those machines in the United States. Bloomberg had estimated throughput numbers and also indicated that Roche has tests that work with some of their other, slower equipment (that I assume is in the US as well).
Mayo Clinic recently developed a 2 hour test.
The limits on testing are, from my POV, entirely political at this point.
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/13/815522836/u-s-coronavirus-tes...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-13/roche-get...
The CDC, in a press conference, explained that tests in places like South Korea are producing 3% to 4% false positives. Our tests are in the 1% to 2% range.
This difference in false positives can have massive consequences as infection spreads. Doubling your false positives could easily overwhelm the medical system. Which in turn, could increase fatality.
And then there's the secondary effects, which Italy is sadly experiencing, as the medical system overloads doctors are having to choose who they simply let die. There are reports of stroke patients going without much attention in Italy because of precisely this issue.
If hospitals can't take care of people because they are overloaded due to administering large numbers of tests with double the false positive outcomes, more people die.
When things truly matter there is no substitute for quality and performance. Quantity and speed are not always the most important factors.
There have been longstanding concerns about strategic food - and even Oil supply, I don't see how the US or any nation can reasonably not have the domestic demand to meet an emergency.
China has been engaging in a form of systematic dumping on a variety of industries for quite a long time - most of us enjoyed the benefits of lower prices while local producers went out of business.
The nefariousness of their strategy is that it's often difficult to tell the difference between simple 'low-cost advantage' vs. actual dumping strategies, and who in the business world is going to argue against lower prices? Nobody.
The US military certainly wouldn't have 99% of their ammunition 'made in China', well, war is much more than bullets, moreover, there's much more to life than war ...
It's definitely time to have national regulations on a lot of such goods. A simple ban on the import of strategic goods would work really well - America is large enough that there'd be several domestic providers.
Americans would end up paying more for certain items, but does it really matter when the surpluses are so large? So it costs $4 per mask instead of $2? The price is not as important as availability. It would be a very natural and synergistic way to increase wages as well.
This could be done in concert with a few key allies on a product by product basis.
I think this epidemic is pretty much solved, don't you?
I.e., it's surely capable of making its own virus test kits and face masks, if it could be bothered.
Unfortunately, it's also a country where the rich like to keep their riches to themselves, and are averse to government action in general.
> I.e., it's surely capable of making its own virus test kits and face masks, if it could be bothered.
They're just outsourcing, like they do for everything.
American manufacturing industries are dying. We know how to make software but making hardware is slowly fading out. Most of our stuff comes from China. China knows how to make the world.
The US historically rejected aid from many other countries
Literally anyone can send aid to anyone, often for political gains.
How are they administered? I've Googled and haven't found a simple answer. Is it spit?
I hate all the cynics and conspiracy theories here. It's a generous move, and deeply appreciated.
Jack didn't spend that much money to be a douchebag. He spent it because this will save countless lives.
It also doesn't help that the current administration has bungled the testing from day 1; in the past we would have ramped up testing when the disease was spreading in China. Whether it's lack of leadership, incompetence, or deliberate we don't know. But Dear Leader certainly won't take responsibility for it and isn't interested in solving the problem so lack of leadership is definitely a factor. My guess is at least some in the administration were dumb enough to believe it wouldn't spread in the US.
[1] http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-02/22/c_138807761.htm
The CDC is probably not the most agile organization, but I'm hoping that they will scale.
I'm not even sure it's incorrect.
Potential Chinese client state
>Italy
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47679760
Italy joins China's New Silk Road project
>Japan
Par East Asia competition and nose thumbing
>SK
Ibid.
>Spain
"Does the EU really mean anything to you in times of crisis?"
It's the usual astute PRC maneuvering.
Jack Ma doing this is also a political move. I'm sure that part of the motivation is just to help, but it seems clear to me that this is also intended to show that China is in a position to help the US, and the optics of that are that the countries are on equal footing. Remember, China as a country does have a bit of a complex about their status, which is completely understandable considering the rapid changes they have been through. This aid shows that, rather than being a 2nd-class citizen, the country is in a position to help America with something.
That being said, this is a great thing, these are much needed supplies for which there isn't a large domestic manufacturing capacity (as it was offshore). However charitable acts can also have additional political motivations, and that does seem to be a factor here.
That's why when Cuba is struck with a hurricane, they reject American aid [1], despite being a relatively poor country who could obviously benefit from it.
[1]https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=943791...
I'm not saying it's unacceptable, I'm saying that China and the U.S. are direct rivals in a way that China and Europe are not, and that it will appear a certain way to the world, and that the way it appears will be advantageous to the CCP.
This is a global adversary, and a global response is required.
Perhaps when we dance this dance again, global health expertise and transparency will be the default from the beginning.
The American are people like you and me. Yes their government needs a lot of work, but people are people and we need to remember that more
I'm not saying it's evil or that we shouldn't accept it, I'm just observing the optics and the fact that there's no way the CCP didn't consider it from this perspective beforehand, regardless of any other motives.
For whatever reason, the US lacks the ability and/or the capability of responding effectively to this crisis.
The assistance is valuable and should be respected and appreciated accordingly.
And if people in the US feel uncomfortable about what this assistance implies about the US -- well, there will be time to consider why that is so and what can be done about it at a future date.
With complete lack of freedom and privacy, you can achieve a lot. They're doing better than any western country would: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-china-slowed-coronavirus-lo...
Like:
- censoring alarming posts in social networks for weeks
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/china-censored-cov...
- threatening medical staff with prosecution in case of warning other people on early stages of pandemic
https://qz.com/1798859/chinese-doctors-coronavirus-death-uni...
- flooding internet discussions with crowds of state trolls spreading disinformation
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/fee3ct/chinese_t...
Good news is that now all eyes are on the medical supply chains, and introduction of the medical supply drug act bill, we should see some supply chain move back to US.
Especially since Chinese government has threatened to withhold drug supplies to US https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic... and has started a disinformation campaign suggesting US inserted coronavirus in Wuhan, brought up by the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-official-says-us-arm...
If it was purely humanitarian, there would be no press release, but there's nothing wrong with him getting a thumbs up for this.
Most rich guys like to get some 'brownie points' while they give money away, which is fine.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/wuhan-doctors-sa...
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/13/asia/china-coronavirus-us...
1. CIA created the virus and released the virus in China as a test.
2. (In Chinese there's no word for 'flu', only 'cold', or 'transmissible cold'.) The 'cold' virus originated in US last year and killed more than 10k Americans before US sent special force to Wuhan to infect us Chinese! Even the head of CDC admitted it (see article).
3. A 5 member US special force went to Wuhan in November. They returned to US and all died in suspicious circumstances.
4. Now all the western countries are sending infected agents into China to blow the epidemic again.
You might notice a common theme that US is the enemy, and they are the originator of all bad things that happened to China. This is not a coincidence.
To the downvoters - explain.
Elon and Jack Ma debates in Shanghai, just listen this guy talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3lUEnMaiAU
Edit: I am not defending the United States. Just look at what our president said this afternoon. Couldn't even string a cohesive sentence together. If Jack Ma is genuine and wants to help - who knows? To me it feels like a huge power move as the OP said - it feels "correct" to me. This news is trending big time on Twitter.
Guess how native English speakers sound when they're trying to speak Chinese?
Chinese unis don’t have the best reputation, but I would expect him to be able to speak the language decently well at least.
He didn't believe AI could be smarter than the smartest human (IIRC).
It's a different point of view.
You can disagree. But calling him an idiot makes you an asshole, tbh.
The interview was cringey as fuck because of his English skill. He couldn't deliver a joke properly like the joke about Alibaba Intelligence. Musk also didn't handle the joke well (not his fault.. he isn't a professional MC).
Jack Ma knows very well what is AI and all such things. You can look at Alibaba Group's hiring frenzy for AI talents as a signal.
In the end, Jack wants to be an approachable power figure to common (Chinese) people. He shows up in Alibaba's annual corp party wearing weird dresses and sing in front of 100k+ live audience. People call him the "Daddy Ma" in reference to his influence on their buying activities online.
He behaves in this fashion, which the so-called philosophy (or Daoism/Zen-like thinking) trumps the hard reasoning. That gives him an aura of an elevated figure above scientists, engineers, and alike.
The point is, powerful people listen to each other because of the power they wield. Must has to listen to Jack, because Jack can influence the Chinese government in a much more effective way than himself. If it was an actual AI expert on that stage, Must probably wont show much interests in that discussion anyway...
OMG this is so racist. The vast majority of surgical masks sold in USA in last several decades were made in China. If they were shitting on them we would have noticed. The majority of items sold in USA stores are manufactured in China. They're not intentionally infecting them before selling them to us. Chinese manufacturers sensibly shut down in the most heavily affected areas, in contrast to those in USA. The people dumb enough to look this gift horse in the mouth are all toilet paper hoarders.
Original poster was talking about masks not meeting some specification. And I'm pretty sure most of your stuff has been coming from China for a long time.
I really am mindblown by both your, and original poster's negativity on this. The guy is almost certainly trying to help. So thanks. And I say this as someone who disapproves very strongly of the CCP.
Your refutation to my logic is "cmmon man" ?
It would lead to what action precisely?
I'm not a pessimist. I'm trying to be pragmatic.
