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The Daily Sceptic
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China Two Years On: From Hubris to Hamsters

by Kwai Lou
5 February 2022 8:00 AM

Two years on from the lockdown of Wuhan the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has persuaded the people of China that it has protected them as though a father figure caring for children. The lockdowns, the restrictions on movement, the closing of borders and the cancelling of public holidays and events: these were all ‘for your own good’, as a parent might say to a child.

The message, of course, is that it has all been worth it because it has worked. The Zero Covid approach has, after the initial Hubei province scare, kept cases and hospitalisations and deaths right down, though probably not as ‘down’ as official figures indicate. The CCP has protected the Chinese people from what Xi Jinping described in his first public comment as the “demon” or “alien” virus. Had it come from another world? Maybe it came from outer space – but certainly it was nothing to do with China. Oh no.

This Zero Covid policy is however mired in arrogance. Those promoting it in China – and elsewhere – are certainly not ‘following the science’ (whatever that means) and are instead setting themselves above the science. A position that starts with the idea that politicians can make viruses behave in a way that viruses don’t behave as a starting point is flawed in its arrogance and is classic hubris. Hubris, however has a history dating back to Ancient Greece of being punished by the gods.

The virus, now in its Omicron guise, has indeed done what contagious viruses do and found a way past closed borders, testing and travel bans.

In Hong Kong some 2,200 hamsters have been euthanised. This is because of a single pet shop worker testing Covid positive and the consequent checks on the hamsters, fewer than five of which also tested positive. Hong Kong this week reports 100-plus cases a day and rising. But… ‘It was the hamsters’ and nothing to do with China. Oh no.

There’s nothing new in this – Sina, a Government-approved Chinese technology company suggested last year that Covid had originally entered Wuhan by way of frozen lobsters from Maine, USA. So…’It was the lobsters’ and nothing to do with China. Oh no.

Beijing’s winter Olympics have recently commenced. A major set piece occasion such as this will not be allowed to go wrong, will not be allowed to tarnish China, and by extension the CCP, and will not be interrupted by anything including a virus. So Beijing is again under shopping restrictions, spectator tickets are not being sold to locals and no visas have been issued for spectators from overseas. Despite this, cases of the Omicron variant have been found in Beijing and are higher than at the equivalent stage for last summer’s (much larger) Tokyo Olympics. How did Omicron get in then? The CCP tell us that it hid inside a letter from Canada and was released by a local opening it. Beijing residents are now told to wear gloves and masks when opening packages from overseas. Again,… “It was the Canadians” and nothing to do with China. Oh no.

The Winter Olympics could yet be Xi Jinping’s Achilles heel. What if, what if, the ubiquitous Omicron strain does become common in Beijing during or after the games? What if the protective CCP is seen as having even partly failed to maintain China’s image in the world, or to have somehow allowed the virus to harm the people of China? Given the tendencies of Omicron, this is at least a possibility over the next two, three even six or seven months. Why the longer term? Because this year, around October, Xi Jinping has to re-elected by the 20th National Party Congress. He will be the first to serve more than two terms since Mao Zedong and will, given the nature of the electoral college, be re-elected. But… will he be re-elected for a term or for life? The virus may even prove to have a power of veto.

Do you remember the Michael Jackson song?

Don’t blame it on Canadians
Don’t blame it on aliens
Don’t blame it on crustaceans
Blame it on the hamsters.

Tags: ChinaChinese Communist PartyLockdownsOlympicsWinterZero Covid

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57 Comments
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Julian
Julian
3 years ago

I doubt they are at all interested in covid per se, just in the opportunities it presents, same as everywhere else but in spades as they have form. Why would we believe official figures from China about covid, more than any official figures? The idea that they could succeed in suppressing covid to the extent they claim, in a populous, connected country, in simply absurd, as is the idea that it spread around the world from Wuhan but not internally in China.

51
-1
DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

As a plandemic it worked rather well

32
-1
Vaxtastic
Vaxtastic
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Exactly. Most struggle to understand the motivation behind it. Why would anyone care what I’m up to? I have nothing to hide.

But the control freakery used to be understood better. Some people are broken. The unrelenting void in their own minds can only be healed by controlling the world. Many of them gravitate to government and it’s associated organizations.

9
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Almost every single Chinese student I have spoken to over the years has wanted to work for their government or an agency thereof.
Only the wildest dream of an alternative, escaping to America to earn their fortune in the private sector.

Most of them, by far, take rubbish degrees like Business Administration which they pass by learning the “correct answer” by rote. This does not bode well for the future of the Chinese economy or built environment.

7
0
GCarty80
GCarty80
3 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Won’t rote learning always be a big part of Chinese culture (whatever political regime they have) because there is no other way to learn how to read Chinese script with its thousands of logograms?

0
0
crisisgarden
crisisgarden
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

‘They contained it because they were so wonderfully authoritarian, brilliantly barbaric, admirably oppressive and decisively decisive!’
A. Guardian reader.

16
0
hairdo
hairdo
3 years ago

The sealed countries, including China and New Zealand, will be where omicron mutates as it spreads when it achieves its breakthrough there. The rest of the world will have dropped most or all restrictions and moved on. The danger is then of a highly pathogenic mutant variant appearing in one of these sealed countries. And so, the prospect of China being the source yet again….

18
-3
stewart
stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  hairdo

What is leaving me completely stunned is that “the west” is passing up a golden opportunity to get one over China big time. All we would need to do is collectively rally behind the idea that covid is over, that it’s just a flu, get rid of literally every single restriction and return to full normality.

China (and whoever wanted to copy it) would then be left completely stuck. Our economies would boom, theirs would languish. Better still, their people, who aren’t idiots and do get outside info, would start getting very restless.

And that’s when I know the WEF, Davos, “conspiracy” narrative is spot on. Because that open approach would be great for the ordinary people, regular businesses. But that is not the priority of people in authority. Their priorities are control of the population and nurturing a cosy relationship with the giant corporations. i.e. The Chinese model.

I have no doubt that the oligarchs, politicians and technocrats running western nations fantasise about implementing Chinese style governance, and see themselves as a westernised, marginally more enlightened CCP.

They don’t want to beat China with western liberal values, they want to copy China and partner up with them.

19
0
Alter Ego
Alter Ego
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Precisely. Western liberal values are a bothersome beast – people get such funny ideas about freedom.

8
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
3 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

They openly talk about the post democratic age, have done for years.

5
-1
Annie
Annie
3 years ago

Poor hamsters.

35
0
Beowulf
Beowulf
3 years ago
Reply to  Annie

First they came for the hamsters, but I did not speak out
Because I was not a hamster, but my Mother was a hamster so I ought to have spoken out.
Then they came for the elderberries…

It’s a Monty Python meets Martin Niemöller world we live in now. Soon they’ll be coming for Pepper Pig…

8
0
Hopeless - "TN,BN"
Hopeless - "TN,BN"
3 years ago

It’s time to send Michie to China on an extended research trip; possible duration about 30 years, with no home leave. As Head of the mission, she might include Ferguson, Whitty and Vallance in her entourage, along with any other deserving persons.

66
0
stewart
stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  Hopeless - "TN,BN"

Back in the day when Philby, Burgess, Maclean and all that lot were actively pursuing the agenda of a foreign communist power, they had to keep it quiet because it was considered treasonous. These days, it’s done in the open, be it the CCP or the ‘you’ll own nothing and be happy’ WEF.

8
-1
karenovirus
karenovirus
3 years ago
Reply to  Hopeless - "TN,BN"

The Chinese don’t need Michie or Ferguson so after maybe receiving a few CCP honours they will end up like Kim Phillby, cooped up in a tiny flat ekeing out two bottles of Chinese vodka over a week.

2
-1
GCarty80
GCarty80
3 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

The very nature of Zero Covid policy means that countries following it don’t admit immigrants, so it’s unlikely that any of its advocates in the West would be able to go into exile in a country more amenable to their values.

Not at all like Philby (who eventually found a home in the Soviet Union) or even the Nazi war criminals who found refuge in South America.

0
0
A passerby
A passerby
3 years ago

I, rightly or wrongly, have now mentally filed the last two years under ‘Virus Hoax – Morons Inc. 2020-2022’, where it will join many other compressed files, for reference purposes only. 

25
0
CovidiotAntiMasker
CovidiotAntiMasker
3 years ago
Reply to  A passerby

2022 – you must be a glass half full type.

10
0
stewart
stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  CovidiotAntiMasker

Good line. I’m going to nick it.

1
0
mishmash
mishmash
3 years ago
Reply to  A passerby

It was only the epilogue I’m afraid.

1
0
Ruth Learner
Ruth Learner
3 years ago

Hubris and hamsters – ummm – USA, UK, most of mainland europe for two years and at least a handful for the other 198 (at least).

7
0
Vaxtastic
Vaxtastic
3 years ago

The key lesson is to convince those immersed in BBCland that the Covid virus was to usher in the passports and associated social control measures, not the other way around. In this china has succeeded, although they already had their evolving social control methods already in place.

I don’t hold out much hope for this as I recall how many people around me only got injected with experimental drugs so they could book a holiday not because they lived in mortal fear of a deadly pathogen. That is the truly depressing part of this, how cheaply they were bought. How readily they embraced astonishingly poor propaganda. Like most people I literally don’t know anyone who died from this thing, and know only two people who got it and had heavy colds with zero longterm effects. Despite my own energetic maskless attempts to expose myself I never succumbed. My Vitamin D and zinc, magnesium and K2 regimen unfortunately saddled me with a robust immune system 😦

What to do? For me the only meaningful takeaway is to understand some people will always be immune to the propaganda. That’s all. Most will succumb. That is the real virus.

53
0
CovidiotAntiMasker
CovidiotAntiMasker
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Yes, we desperately need a propaganda vax to prevent contagion, it’s not enough just to turn off the tv.

5
0
Vxi7
Vxi7
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Exactly greenpass was extended by a year in EU!

2
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Vitamin D.
Note the first ‘linked article’ on the Dail Mail article above this one. GoFundMe

“Vitamin D works after all !”
Wow, thanks DM, who else knew?

(Well it was a couple of hours ago but it’s gone now. Can’t imagine why.)

Last edited 3 years ago by karenovirus
4
0
milesahead
milesahead
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

They were like Esau and, in effect, sold their birthright for a mess of pottage.

Last edited 3 years ago by milesahead
0
0
J4mes
J4mes
3 years ago

There’s an increasing number of articles here in the UK reporting about dogs catching convid.

The regime has followed the communists every step of the way over the last two years, let’s hope they don’t even think about suggesting animals need to be culled.

Ferguson already has a horrifying track record on using his dodgy stats to cull enormous numbers of healthy animals in the past.

32
0
mishmash
mishmash
3 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

Avian flu outbreaks in areas that just coincidentally have 5G masts installed, with warning posters on them saying that radiation exposure causes flu-like symptoms.

Last edited 3 years ago by mishmash
6
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
3 years ago
Reply to  mishmash

Avian Flu spread prevention orders are commonplace in the UK; last year it spread from S/W England to cover the whole country but were never revoked so remain in place.

0
0
mishmash
mishmash
3 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

5G installation also spread over the last 2 years….

3
-1
mishmash
mishmash
3 years ago
Reply to  mishmash

Evidence for a connection between coronavirus disease-19 and exposure to radiofrequency radiation from wireless communications including 5G

2
0
stewart
stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

That would really throw a spanner into the brains of the modern, metro person. If dogs were suddenly considered a major spreader of covid, would they finally accept to live with the virus rather than culling them?

What am I saying… they’d plug them with 3 doses of Moderna and pretend that there is nothing unusual about young dogs dying of heart attacks.

6
0
milesahead
milesahead
3 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

If they go after people’s dogs, then that really would cause a revolution!

0
0
Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

That would be a dream come true for me. I hate dogs, they are noisy, irritating and shit everywhere.

0
-1
beornwulf
beornwulf
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

A bit like peolpe.

0
0
Richard Austin
Richard Austin
3 years ago

You’d think that it would have occurred to someone in China to create a Vaccine whilst it was creating a virus wouldn’t you? I love the “It was in a letter” bit, brings a whole new meaning to Viruses being in the Mail! That kind of thing has made me laugh all the way through with ideas like “YOu won’t catch it sitting down, it only gets you as you go the loo” and “You’re safe in the swimming pool but on the side of the pool”.

14
-1
Jo Starlin
Jo Starlin
3 years ago

I’ve a strong suspicion that any lockdowns in China were strictly performative and staged in fairly random locations for the benefit of the idiot Western media. The CCP would have had the data early on and I simply don’t believe that a regime of this nature would wreck its economy over a possible 10% max increase in all cause mortality over a short period of time. Given the brutality of its one child policy (nice name for mass infanticide and millions upon millions of forced abortions), it just doesn’t make sense.

The argument against that I suppose is that the CCP right back to the sparrows campaign and the Great Leap Forward has a long history of insane, hugely damaging policies of self harm. We’ll never really know.

26
-1
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  Jo Starlin

Indeed – why would anyone think the CCP leadership care much about notionally saving a few lives?

16
-1
Jo Starlin
Jo Starlin
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

It’s never made any sense to me on those terms. Spreading the foul, insane and evil doctrine of lockdown to the West had its uses though. This is worth a read:

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/china-covid-lockdown-propaganda

11
-1
Jo Starlin
Jo Starlin
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Looks like the CCP downtick bots are on the case 🙂

12
0
Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  Jo Starlin

They’re famous for snooping and spying on everything.

Up yours you lying sneaky bastards!!!! Snoop on that

1
0
stewart
stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  Jo Starlin

No, no. The lockdowns were real.

Beijing had pretty substantial restrictions for several months and work from home guidance for many months.

The argument against that I suppose is that the CCP right back to the sparrows campaign and the Great Leap Forward has a long history of insane, hugely damaging policies of self harm.

Absolutely. Many think the CCP are geniuses. They are but much in the same way that Mao was. A genius at taking control, keeping it and abusing the population without them saying a peep.

6
0
WM
WM
3 years ago
Reply to  Jo Starlin

My hunch is that there is also a strong incentive to hide any infections in the municipalities. The CCP has made it clear that any hint of a breakout will be considered a failure and result in a destructive containment strategy. Therefore, any right thinking citizen or member of the CCP is going to do everything they can to hide infections from the central authority.

5
-1
Smelly Melly
Smelly Melly
3 years ago

Started watching the winter olympics but had to switch off as I could stand seeing mass masking.

7
0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  Smelly Melly

I saw a snippet of Women’s Ice Hockey and it was dismal – empty arena. Even in Canada I imagine no-one is much interested in it, so perhaps it was empty because it’s not very appealing to locals, but maybe the whole thing will largely be spectator-free. Elite sport in general is unwatchable for me now – virtue signalling, politics, corruption, whingeing, entitled athletes. corporate bollocks, and now covid nonsense.

15
0
stewart
stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Just reading about Nadal’s win made me want to throw something.

7
0
Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  Smelly Melly

Just been for a walk in a University city that has a lot of chinky students, well over 90% of them masked up just walking around outside. They must be reveling in bringing their pathetic “culture” here

6
-5
John001
John001
3 years ago

Read the book ‘Hidden Hand’ about the slow stealthy CCP takeover of the west. It amplifies the brief details here.

It’s sometimes hard to know whether a particular person is reporting to the CCP or the WEF.

11
-1
Smelly Melly
Smelly Melly
3 years ago
Reply to  John001

I’ve read it and it just confirms what I’ve been saying for 2 decades. I use to travel with my job and I was concerned 20 years ago about the influence of China around the world. In Pakistan I use to go to the Chinese restaurants as the quality of the food was much better than in local restaurants.

3
0
GCarty80
GCarty80
3 years ago
Reply to  Smelly Melly

I guess Pakistan’s bitter rivalry with India (of course one of the baleful legacies of British colonialism) will have made it easier for China to puppetize Pakistan…

0
0
Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
3 years ago

Clean North Sea Gas v Dirty Russian Gas
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/02/05/clean-north-sea-gas-v-dirty-russian-gas/
by Paul Homewood

Saturday 5th February 2pm 
Windsor Great Dog Walk for Freedom 
behind one simple sign 
“Covid Rules Are Barking” 
All Canines and Humans welcome
Even if you don’t own a dog please come along
meet Alexander Park (near Bandstand) Barry Rd/Goswell Rd 
Windsor SL4 1QY

Stand in the Park Sundays 10am  make friends, ignore the madness & keep sane 
Wokingham Howard Palmer Gardens Cockpit Path car park Sturges Rd RG40 2HD  
Henley Mills Meadows (at the bandstand) Henley-on-Thames RG9 1DS

Telegram Group 
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell

4
0
Vxi7
Vxi7
3 years ago

Zero covid policy is a hybrid economical warfare against the rest of the world! Just look how many items and raw materials we are dependent on. So in name of covid they limit export and collapse the supply chain.

9
0
stewart
stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  Vxi7

I think in the long run, they’re doing us a favour, tbh.

2
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
3 years ago

As I’ve been saying for nearly two years; in his goterdamerung moment bozo will command the slaughter of all newborn domestic pussycats.

This will be his revenge against those who failed to save him at the ballot box out of some ‘pussyfooting’ concern about him eating cake in No.10s Rose Garden.

Constitutional experts and later historians will be living off that for ages as Mirror Group News buys up the husk of Myspace for archive photos of Cute Cats to.print some every day by way of illustration.

1
0
GlassHalfFull
GlassHalfFull
3 years ago

“The U.S. Defense Dept developed SARS-CoV-2 in North Carolina. The 4th Branch (Intelligence Community) wanted to use it. The Pentagon restarts funding for development of SARS-CoV-2 in partnership with Wuhan, China – setting up the cover story. The 4th Branch (Intelligence Community) then uses the virus by releasing it in/around Wuhan. Everything after that is simply part of the 4th Branch covering their tracks. Wuhan, China becomes the patsy.”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/10/02/did-the-fourth-branch-of-government-release-sars-cov-2-then-blame-china/

Ron Unz articles supporting and predating most of the above and the main articles series all listed here.
https://www.unz.com/runz/is-the-tide-finally-turning-on-covid-as-an-american-biowarfare-attack/

2
-1
Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago

I hate the Chinks with a passion, people are waking up far too slowly to what they’re all about and cutting them too much slack.

3
-6
lyndar
lyndar
3 years ago

When I think it’s bad in England at least I be glad I don’t live in China, (or Scotland haha). A good article worth reading in full just for the song lyrics at the end. Made me smile, something I definitely need these days.

0
0

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