Koon Yew Yin 5 Dec 2020
Currently China has a total of 86,601 Covid 19 cases, 81,631 recovered and 4,634 deaths. The daily number of new cases is so small as shown on the chart below.
The Chinese proven method to prevent the contact and spread of the coronavirus: –
1 You must wear a face mask whenever you are out of your house.
2 Practice social distancing; do not stand nearer than 2 meters from another person.
3 Avoid going out. If you have to go out, when you return home immediately you must wash your hands with soap and water.
4 Get yourself tested as soon as you feel feverous and uncomfortable.
5 Never forget life is more important than money.
So, it wasn’t just masks, it was a wilful and positive regard for the health and safety of others in the community, a confidence in, and sensible following of, government guidelines as well as a totally different culture which brought China through Covid19 and keeps Chinese people safe. Empirically, it’s the culture moulded through five thousand years of civilization and literature.
As per the research by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Red Cross, the coronavirus was present in the country weeks earlier than scientists and health officials had previously thought and had been infecting people in the US even before China reported its first cases on December 31, 2019.
According to the scientists, an analysis of blood donations shows that the virus may have been spreading across the country as early as 13 December.
Currently US has a total of 14.772 million Covid 19 cases, 8.66 million recovered and 285,550 deaths. The daily number of new cases is still rising as shown on the chart below.
US had more than 4 million Covid 19 new cases in November, doubling the record set in October. US has the most Covid 19 cases in the world. No country can beat the record set by US. Due to the mass gathering to celebrate Thanks Giving, a new record of more than 4 million Covid 19 cases will be set in December.
The US likes to impose its own will on other nations and like to destroy other nations. The US wants to expands everywhere, dominates people everywhere, and flaunts its strength everywhere, there will eventually be a day of exhaustion.
After the 2nd world war, the US declared 13 wars. It dropped more bombs in Vietnam than it did in the 2nd world war. It has killed millions of Muslims in the Middle East. I can imagine millions of young Muslims whose parents were killed by US would swear on their parents’ graves that they would take revenge. That is why no Americans dare to walk along any streets populated with Muslims.
The US has been fighting so many wars but it cannot fight its own war against Covid 19.
This clearly demonstrates that the US Government has some chronic diseases that the American society cannot cure. The 2 incurable chronic diseases are:
1 the people’s excessive claim for freedom and the contradiction between reality and capacity.
2 deep rooted racial discrimination, racial contradictions caused by the internal mechanism of the American democratic system.
President Trump does not even believe in wearing a face mask.
For the purposes of this article, forget politics, forget governance and forget about the claims of authoritarian lockdowns, forget that China’s central government gave one single consistent message while mixed messages came from the US President who argued with State Governors. Forget that masks were deemed unnecessary by the CDC and other scientists, in order to cover the fact that there weren’t any available. So much so that, by the time they were available and recommended, many people had formed opinions based on political messages. Even now, many in the US think masks are more likely to cause lung disease than prevent COVID19.
Instead, let’s look at a more academic or scientific way to describe how China did something the west struggles to do. We’re seeing incredulity and reading reports of “fake news” or “Chinese misinformation” stemming from utter disbelief within the USA that China could have done anything right. These reports ignore one very simple point: we aren’t alike.
Both Chinese and Americans are ambitious and hard-working. Both nations have some confidence in their future. China is slightly more confident, or less pessimistic, about its future than the USA, perhaps due to factors such as political stability and no war for a generation.
Where the two nations differ is much more important. Chinese people know their place and accept it. What this means is that, when the father tells the child to do something, they do it, when the boss tells the employee to do something, they do it, even if, sometimes they may disagree, it’s natural for Chinese people to do this, it explains why Chinese students are so well behaved in classes too. When the government tells the country to do something, generally, the country accepts that it needs to be done, even when some disagree, they do it. Most Americans can’t understand this because, in the USA, there are deeply established rights of freedom, an American would say: “you can’t tell me what to do” and then proceed to do what they felt was their right and privilege.
What’s profoundly important about this is that, just as Americans can’t understand Chinese acquiescence and see it as subjugation, Chinese don’t understand this degree of freedom and view it as selfish. Individualism in the United States is extremely high, while in China, it’s extremely low. This low factor helps communities work well together, it keeps people working in teams and accepting that the best thing for the community is not what’s best for “me”. High individuality could account for the fact that people like Mike Pompeo constantly suggests Chinese people need to be “rescued” from their government. Because for highly independent people, living the way Chinese communities do, with constant checks on their welfare and a government that supplies and meets their needs, seems to be authoritarian — it’s not, it’s the way that thousands of years of Chinese culture has engrained the differences between them and a country with a short history built on an individual, pioneering spirit of exploration.
Long Term Orientation manifests itself in an interesting way. The Chinese government looks a generation ahead, Americans think one political cycle. China has plans out to 2035 and implements things today planned years ago. On a personal, or individual level, this manifests itself in different ways. It’s well known that Chinese people like to save money, the US citizen “lives for today”. Look at recent breadlines just a few weeks into a lockdown as some Americans struggle to feed themselves. No income means they can’t service debts nor can they meet rental payments. I lived in China throughout the lockdown, I saw no issues getting food, no hoarding, no price gouging and no breadlines — in fact the only time I saw a line was never more than 20–30 people for masks, never 6000 cars representing families with insufficient income to feed themselves. Chinese citizens used their savings for daily necessities and their confidence in government systems meant that there was no need to bulk purchase, rare examples of price gouging were dealt with by severe fines and even business closures. This confidence meant people freely did what the government asked.
Indulgence is another very large cultural gap. Make no mistake, Chinese people love to indulge themselves, but only do so when they can afford it and when the time is right. Americans will indulge themselves whenever they want and seem to live comfortably with the attitude of “it won’t happen to me”. Just last week, the CDC asked people not to travel during the Thanksgiving Holiday. Yet, 40 million people have pre-booked flights and we know the roads will be full of cars travelling from one town or city to another. An indulgence that Chinese people, with very few exceptions, sacrificed when their government asked them not to celebrate the equally important Chinese New Year.
So, it wasn’t just masks, it was a wilful and positive regard for the health and safety of others in the community, a confidence in, and sensible following of, government guidelines as well as a totally different culture which brought China through Covid19 and keeps Chinese people safe. Empirically, it’s the culture moulded through five thousand years of civilization and literature.
