Actually, all of our current response, up to this point assumes that if we half-ass our response to the pandemic, it will go away.
"What China is doing" has largely stopped being relevant to anyone outside China in early/mid-February.
As of today, China could have zero people testing positive, or a billion people testing positive, and it wouldn't matter one bit to our domestic planners - they'd just keep doing what they've been doing.
If the answer is yes, then you also believe the statement "China has zero cases since it stopped reporting them".
Our responses are based on the numbers reported by the CCP, if you realize that there is now tens of millions of suddenly deactivated phone plans in a country where the smartphone is integrated into everyday life, on top of the millions of urns, one can connect the dots at the true nature, and its imminent danger.
Example: As our Canadian Health minister quickly shot down criticisms of China's low case numbers as "conspiracy" and "racism", it absolutely is relevant to the decision makers who seem oblivious that they are quite possibly being lied to. Again. ( For a country that allowed the CCP to steal from their biggest telecom company and fund the rise of Huawei, it is absolutely puzzling as to why the US should trust Canada )
China currently has 1332 symptomatic cases according to the official figures (which include Hong Kong and Taiwan, but Shanghai also has 100 cases) https://news.sina.cn/zt_d/yiqing0121
China has repeatedly announced localized outbreaks, usually attributed to failures of quarantine procedures, which were countered by localized lockdowns and subsequently fizzled out.
That's not too different from Australia and New Zealand. Do you believe that their numbers are also fake?
My answer? Probably not, but even if I did, it wouldn't matter. It doesn't matter what I believe about China. What matters is that the virus is here, and we're not dealing with it, and instead of pressing our governments' feet to the coals we are busy getting distracted by pointless nationalistic arguments about what is happening in a country that we have banned travel from.
Let me say it again - it doesn't matter what's happening in China. It's not the reason for why our daily cases are rising.
> millions of cell phone plans cancelled
Allright, then.
There is a mountain of reasons for why that would happen in the middle of a global recession, and a travel ban. Please consider applying the same skepticism to a wild-ass claim that was made in March, and has not since had any follow-up. (If we were to take it at face value, the entirety of China got the virus, all by March. Which is, of course, complete bullshit.)
If you don't believe me, ask any five Chinese ex-pats about how their extended family's doing. Chances are near certain that they'll tell you that not a single one of their relatives got COVID.
I personally know a lot more than five people from China. I've talked to them about COVID. Not a single one of their relatives have caught it this year. [1]
[1] Meanwhile, much of my extended family in Eastern Europe, plus a few people they know got it. Funny, that...
But what accounts for this compulsion to argue that they therefore lost control like the west. You can’t hide widespread outbreaks. Iran failed to. Russia failed to.
There are millions of Chinese outside the country with relatives outside. Vast economic trade networks. Satellites scanning every inch of China every day. Witness the exposés on Uighur concentration camps despite intense Chinese effort to hide them.
Life in China appears to be....mostly normal virus wise. And multiple other countries achieved the same. It doesn’t strain credulity to believe China mostly contained it.
I could believe China has somewhat more cases than they say, but it’s simply implausible that they have a raging epidemic.
China is the land of the dual-SIM phone, to the point where Apple even made a special iPhone for them that takes dual SIM cards. People have a second SIM for work, or for their mistress, or just for cheaper calling rates to their family. During a lockdown where you're not working (=not making money) and you're stuck at home with your family (and free calling over WiFi), why wouldn't you cancel your second SIM?
