Does China Owe Reparations for Coronavirus? - Page 2 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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Does China Owe Reparations for Coronavirus?

1. Yes, they do.
11
31%
3. No.
23
66%
4. Other
1
3%
#15079473
"Pandemics have always been fellow travelers of globalization. A third phenomenon stalks in their shadow: racism.

As people confined to their homes will be well aware, limits on human movement and interaction are crucial to holding back outbreaks of disease. Racism, however, exploits a flaw in human reasoning quite as effectively as infections exploit flaws in our immune defenses. The central fallacy is to assume that if international travel helps spread disease, a perceived “foreign” group is most likely to be carriers. Viruses, though — unlike people — don’t much discriminate by race..

Despite the lack of evidence that ethnic groups are responsible for disease, the canard has been frequently been used to justify racist measures.

For much of the past century, the relative absence of pandemics has put the alliance between racism and disease into remission. Vaccines, antibiotics, sewerage systems and a better understanding of hygiene have proved our most powerful tools for fighting disease."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-disease-xenophobia-hand-hand-000050085.html
#15079476
Reparations do not work. A world war or pandemic causes so much economic damage that it dwarfs the GDP of the perpetrator, thus making it impossible to repay the damage in reasonable time. You also need to have means and will to extract reparations by force if necessary.
#15079506
I see the poll was restarted. That's good, because the "no" answers given were super loaded by the OP.

Last time I voted other, but given the renaming of everything, I'm now going with a hard no.
#15079522
Rancid wrote:This is way too complex of a problem to properly assign blame and punish. On a practical level, it's not fair, and it also serves to strain relations between nations. I see nothing positive from this.

Overall, I opposed reparations for this virus for the same reasons I opposed slave reparations.

Side note:
The irony here, is that I'm sure most people that are saying China should reparations, are people that think slave reparations should not be paid.



I think the reason why they are suggesting China should pay reparations is to highlight double standards. But I agree with you that reparations are wrong. Not just the slavery issue in the US, but other examples such as Japanese reparations to S Korea, etc. Reparations seem to be more about tribalism and collective punishment than any genuine concern for justice.
#15079537
COVID 19 is not a Chinese virus. It could have come from a bat or armadillo.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 175442.htm

SolarCross wrote:Late: Everyone but me is a russianbot working for Putin.

Also Late: Only Xi Jinping and glorious the Communist Party of China can save us from the horrors of American Capitalism which caused deadly plague of Coronavirus.


I am not a russianbot. I worked for a Belarusian once but she was definitely not Putin.
#15079545
SolarCross wrote:Late: Everyone but me is a russianbot working for Putin.

Also Late: Only Xi Jinping and glorious the Communist Party of China can save us from the horrors of American Capitalism which caused deadly plague of Coronavirus.


This is a very bad stretch. I do not believe being a paid troll on PoFo is productive, and if there's anyone who's either staunchly pro-China or being a Chinese-paid troll it's not Member late. We may hate him but we should at least be reasonable.
#15079570
MistyTiger wrote:
I am not a russianbot. I worked for a Belarusian once but she was definitely not Putin.



Ah ha! A confession!

You had us all fooled, thinking you were an American of Taiwanese descent. But now we know the truth. After all, making a claim that they are not a Russian bot is exactly what we would expect a Russian bot to do. Therefore you must be a ‘beepsky, beepsky’ Russian bot :eh:
#15079574
I don't give a damn about defending China; another empire, just what the world doesn't need. But let's get real. China doesn't owe shit to anybody. They didn't do anything any other nation-state wouldn't have done under similar circumstances. Yep, they lied and covered up the crisis at the beginning, and that eventually caused more deaths around the world. So effin what? Did Italy do better? The US also mishandled the crisis and wasted a full month of lead time. You want a pandemic-free world then invest in pandemic tracking infrastructure and have lots of extra medical capacity in terms of professionals and supplies. That's the thing with conservatives: they think they can do everything in government on the cheap and it won't ever bite them in the ass.

And BTW: you can't have full-on neoliberalism, open trade, massive long supply chains, free movement of labor, capital, and goods, without exposing yourself to every germ that springs up around the planet.
#15079612
quetzalcoatl wrote:I don't give a damn about defending China; another empire, just what the world doesn't need. But let's get real. China doesn't owe shit to anybody. They didn't do anything any other nation-state wouldn't have done under similar circumstances. Yep, they lied and covered up the crisis at the beginning, and that eventually caused more deaths around the world. So effin what? Did Italy do better? The US also mishandled the crisis and wasted a full month of lead time...


I fully agree that many other countries also mis-handled the situation, but if China had not started it all these wouldn't have happened anyways, so the Chinese government's lying and covering up should still be held to account by the rest of the world.

The most infuriating thing is that China even wanted the world to thank them:
#15079833
Patrickov wrote: ...if China had not started it all these wouldn't have happened anyways...


How did China start it, in your estimation? This seems to imply some deliberate act of the Chinese in creating the virus.

Did you know the Spanish Flu (which killed 20 - 100 million) actually originated in Kansas?
#15079842
Patrickov wrote:I fully agree that many other countries also mis-handled the situation, but if China had not started it all these wouldn't have happened anyways, so the Chinese government's lying and covering up should still be held to account by the rest of the world.

The most infuriating thing is that China even wanted the world to thank them:


The virus evolved from SARS and like SARS, originated from a wild animal in nature. I posted a link. Viruses are all around us. They constantly evolve and infect people. China is a densely populated country so any infection can spread quickly.

China reported it first. The Chinese are trying to help with a cure. I would thank them, not just because I am part Chinese. I believe that they want to help.
#15079995
The ensuing propaganda war and blame game will make it impossible to determine an adequate response to the crisis. It'll sabotage solutions simply because the Chinese have invented them. A pandemic is an international problem that can only be solved by international cooperation. Trump sabotaged the US response, now he is about to sabotage the international response out of pure stupidity.

He thinks it's enough to trow tons of money at it to monopolize the vaccine for America only, or to buy up medical equipment or ventilator components that will deprive quality ventilator makers of their means to make ventilators while nobody knows whether Tesla, Ford or GM will make good use of these components.

Trump has an uncanny knack of doing exactly the wrong thing - and then blame it on Obama.

See kids? Imperialism is bad, not only for us, but even for you.
#15080005
Rancid wrote:I wouldn't. It would provide too much fuel to their propaganda machine. That said, it doesn't mean we shouldn't work with them.


The problem is not whether we believe in their propaganda (most of it is hilarious), the problem is that the West has failed to address the problem adequately. The lack of leadership in the West threatens democracy - not China.
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