竹炉山房

3月12日中国外交部发言人赵立坚在推特上发表五连问，意指零号病人来自美国军队。

“When did patient zero begin in the US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be the US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!”

赵立坚. (2020-03-12). Twitter.

在美股连续熔断四次后，特朗普赤膊上阵自降身份与中国外交部互怼，还频频以“中国病毒”、“中国人病毒”、“武汉病毒”等词汇攻击中国。

扩展阅读：美国有线电视新闻网社论《照片显示特朗普简报中“冠状”被划掉，取而代之为“中国人”》。

Photo shows "corona" crossed out and replaced with "Chinese" in Trump's briefing notes

President Trump's notes from Thursday's coronavirus briefing show someone crossed out the word “Corona” in coronavirus and replaced it with the word “Chinese.”

This picture captured by Washington Post Photographer Jabin Botsford, comes as Trump has stepped up his efforts to scapegoat China for the spread of the coronavirus. 

The change in tone from the White House comes as the number of cases in the US rises on a daily basis, and despite Trump initially praising China's President Xi Jinping for his handling of the crisis. 

After consulting with medical experts and receiving guidance from the World Health Organization, CNN has determined that the term “Chinese virus” is both inaccurate and considered stigmatizing.  

Photo shows "corona" crossed out and replaced with "Chinese" in Trump's briefing notes. (2020-03-19). CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-19-20-intl-hnk

特朗普还以“中国掩盖病毒扩散信息导致美国措手不及”等辞令为美国政府长达两个月的无(无)为(能)而治擦屁股。

扩展阅读：纽约时报署名文章《中国为西方争取了时间，西方却把它白白浪费了》。

China Bought the West Time with the Coronavirus. The West Squandered It. 

Ian Johnson

LONDON - When I got off my flight from Beijing to London nearly two weeks ago, I knew what I had to do: go straight into self-quarantine.

I live in China, where a dramatic lockdown since late January has made it clear that all residents, even those well beyond the epicenter's outbreak in Wuhan, were in the middle of a global health crisis. The boarding process in Beijing was the final reminder: two mandatory temperature checks and an electronic health statement for which I had to provide an email address and two contact phone numbers.

But as the plane approached London, a sense of unreality set in. The airline distributed a cheaply printed sheet that only advised us to call the usual National Health Service hotline if we felt ill. On arrival, there was no temperature check and no health statement - meaning that British officials would have had no easy way to track us if one of us came down with Covid-19. Instead, we just walked off the plane, took off our face masks and disappeared into the city.

In the days since then, Europe and the United States have been convulsed by the coronavirus's rapid spread in those regions. Italy is now under lockdown, and cases are rapidly multiplying across the United States. The stock markets have tanked. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization formally announced what everyone already knew: This is a pandemic. Perhaps by the time you read this, airport health checks and declarations finally will be mandatory in places like London.

But that won't change the fact that for weeks now, the attitude toward the coronavirus outbreak in the United States and much of Europe has been bizarrely reactive, if not outright passive - or that the governments in those regions have let pass their best chance to contain the virus's spread. Having seen a kind of initial denial play out already in China, I feel a sense of déjà vu. But while China had to contend with a nasty, sudden surprise, governments in the West have been on notice for weeks.

It's as if China's experience hadn't given Western countries a warning of the perils of inaction. Instead, many governments seem to have imitated some of the worst measures China put in place, while often turning a blind eye to the best of them, or its successes.

Outsiders seem to want to view China's experiences as uniquely its own. I imagine there are many reasons for this, including the comforting idea that China is far away and an epidemic over there surely couldn't really spread so far and so fast over here. More than anything, though, I think that outsiders, especially in the West, fixate on China's authoritarian political system, and that makes them discount the possible value and relevance of its decisions to them.

Until recently, one dominant story line was that the epidemic in China spiraled out of control because the authorities cracked down on early whistle-blowers in late December, allowing the virus to spread. When China put in place a draconian lockdown and quarantine measures in January, some mainstream foreign reports didn't just criticize the program as excessive; they described the entire exercise as flat-out backward or essentially pointless. China did get props for building two hospitals in just over a week, but even the awe over that feat was tinged with a sense that something nefarious was at work - in a Hitler-built-the-autobahn kind of way. And when quarantine shelters were set up to host infected people so that they wouldn't spread the disease to family members at home, the effort was portrayed as dystopian or, at best, chaotic.

Arguing against these interpretations makes me a bit queasy. I realize that Chinese officials covered up the problem in late December and early January - a disastrous series of decisions. And I know that now China's leaders want to sell their heavy-handed methods as exemplary. President Xi made his first visit to Wuhan on Tuesday, an implicit marker of success.

Even as the virus was killing dozens of people a day there, government propaganda was touting the China model while ridiculing efforts by the United States to combat natural disasters. Now that other parts of the world are suffering, China is making well-publicized efforts to offer help, sending teams to Iran and Italy to deliver supplies and offer advice. And it has imposed travel bans from some destinations hit by infections - a measure the government decried as excessive when China suffered it.

Yet it would be foolish to believe that China's decisions have been mainly based on crude authoritarianism. One needn't defend every one of its measures on medical grounds; those are matters that health care professionals might debate for years to come. But it's worth acknowledging that not all of China's failings are unique to its political system, and that some of its policies were motivated by serious concern for the public good and executed by a highly competent civil service.

For example, before condemning the decision of Chinese officials in early January to dismiss the threat of a looming epidemic, remember that at that time the coronavirus was not reported to have caused any deaths. Contrast this with, say, the United States today: Despite having had a free flow of information for weeks and witnessed thousands of deaths in China as evidence, parts of America's political establishment - including at the White House - have pushed a disinformation campaign to downplay the risk.

And if you think it's too easy to criticize President Trump, remember my airport experience in London. Or consider Germany's decision earlier this week to hold a mass sporting event in the middle of its outbreak zone. Or Japan's decision to let people walk off an infected cruise ship without proper testing. Some of these countries are now backpedaling, trying to explain away their blasé attitudes, but that's weeks late.

China's leaders did fumble at the very start, yet in short order they acted far more decisively than many democratically elected leaders have to date. Authoritarian or not, they also want the public's approval. Chinese leaders may not face voters, but they, too, care about legitimacy, and that hinges on performance for them as well.

Aspects of China's quarantine - especially when they prevented the elderly and disabled from receiving medical care - were unnecessarily crude. But overall, I don't think the measures were unpopular. The government worked hard to get people to buy into the necessity of tough measures. It bombarded the public with social media posts, stories, billboards, radio shows and articles about the risks posed by the virus. In one park in Beijing, a recording on a loop admonished people to: "Wash your hands thoroughly. Avoid meeting up friends. Keep a safe distance."

In my experience living in China for weeks during the peak period of the lockdown and talking to various groups beyond the disgruntled elites, people were frustrated, even exasperated, by the containment measures - but they largely supported them, too.

And while some in the West fixated on how China's system failed to stem the outbreak at first, they were ignoring the aspects of it that worked. There's nothing authoritarian about checking temperatures at airports, enforcing social distancing or offering free medical care to anyone with Covid-19.

Not all open societies have fumbled. Singapore, Taiwan and perhaps soon enough South Korea, have moved forcefully but sensibly to contain the virus, showing the sort of savvy that seems to be missing in large swaths of the West. Maybe it's because these countries are close enough to the center of the outbreak that their governments could recognize its seriousness, while also being wary of China's sledgehammer measures.

But too many countries further afield have stood by, watching for weeks what was unfolding in China, and then elsewhere in Asia, as though it was none of their concern. Some governments have dithered for lack of political will. Some seem to fall prey, still, to a perception of China as the eternal "other," whose experience couldn't possibly be relevant to us, much less provide any lessons - other than in what not to do.

I.Johnson. (2020-3-13). China Bought the West Time with the Coronavirus, The West Squandered It. NYTimes. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/opinion/china-response-china.html

近日，美国又试图通过各种手段将“武汉病毒”刻入外交辞令，招致西方集团内部意见分裂。

扩展阅读：美国有线电视新闻网署名文章《美国推动将“武汉病毒”词汇纳入七国集团联合声明导致联盟分裂》。

US push to include 'Wuhan virus' language in G7 joint statement fractures alliance

By Alex Marquardt and Jennifer Hansler, CNN

Updated 0042 GMT (0842 HKT) March 26, 2020

Washington (CNN) - A push by the US State Department to include the phrase "Wuhan virus" in a joint statement with other Group of Seven members following a meeting of foreign ministers on coronavirus on Wednesday was rejected, resulting in separate statements and division in the group.

"What the State Department has suggested is a red line," a European diplomat said. "You cannot agree with this branding of this virus and trying to communicate this."

The proposed draft statement by the United States also blamed China for the pandemic's spread, the diplomat told CNN.

Although the World Health Organization officially has dubbed the illness Covid-19 or coronavirus, a 12-paragraph draft statement circulated by the US among the G7 ministers referred to it as the "Wuhan virus." Because the US holds the presidency for the international coalition -- which also includes the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada -- it was responsible for penning the draft joint statement.

As a result, several of the member nations released their own statements following the foreign ministers' meeting, which was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A French statement about the meeting referred to the "COVID-19 pandemic." And in a sign that the loaded term isn't a priority for all members of the Trump administration, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin signed on to a G7 finance ministers' statement that they were enhancing coordination "to respond to the global health, economic, and financial impacts associated with the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)."

A joint statement by President Donald Trump and the other G7 leaders after a March 16 videoconference made no mention of China at all.

In public remarks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has consistently targeted China for an alleged lack of transparency at the outset of the pandemic. CNN has learned that the administration has implemented a coordinated messaging campaign, which includes talking points sent out by the National Security Council pushing US officials to highlight China's alleged "coverup" and subsequent disinformation campaign.

Der Spiegel was first to report on the inclusion of the phrase in the draft. Asked about the German outlet's report on Wednesday, Pompeo did not deny it.

"With respect to the statement, I always think about these meetings the right answer is to make sure we have the same message coming out of it," he said during a press availability at the State Department.

Pompeo said that the pandemic was "the most pressing agenda item" at Wednesday's meeting.

"There was a lot of discussion today amongst the G7 about the intentional disinformation campaign that China has been and continues to be engaged in," he said.

China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause to the World Health Organization on December 31, while Chinese officials say they began regular contact with the US about the virus on January 3. The first US case was confirmed January 20.

State Department officials have said that the use of the phrase "Wuhan virus" is meant to counter such disinformation. However, critics say the phrase is inflammatory, particularly as Asians and Asian Americans in the US report heightened incidents of racism and xenophobia.

When the virus was officially named, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that "having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing."

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has decided to pull back from associating the coronavirus with China, which he had previously done by calling it the "China virus" or the "Chinese virus."

CNN's Maegan Vazquez, Zachary Cohen and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

A.Marquardt,J.Hansler. (2020-3-26). US push to include 'Wuhan virus' language in G7 joint statement fractures alliance. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/g7-coronavirus-statement/index.html

中美之间大打口水战将削弱全球合作抗击疫情的能力，尤其是中国已经有效控制住大规模的爆发积累了宝贵的经验，并已推进经济复苏，给全球树立了一个经典的模型。特朗普政权为获得美国大选的胜利而不择手段，给全球树立了一个极坏的榜样，西方集团因此分裂毫不稀奇。

打口水战的另一大影响是在全球树立种族对立和加剧国家之间的摩擦，有损全球化进程。从美国来说，反华将成为新一波的主流民意，在美华人面临更大的种族压力；从中国来说，反美将导致经济复苏缓慢，出口严重减缓，进口严重受阻。

扩展阅读：美国有线电视新闻网署名社论《很多美国人喜欢特朗普处理危机的方式 》，指责“中国政府误导、隐瞒有关病毒的信息并试图掩盖事实”。

The Democratic rush to call the President racist over his terming the Covid-19 disease "the Chinese virus" backfired. In their quest to make just about every issue about race, Democrats fell all over themselves calling Trump -- and anyone else who called the virus "Chinese" or "Wuhan"-- racist, despite evidence that the virus did indeed, originate in China. After Trump imposed travel restrictions on people arriving to the US from China to stop the virus's spread, former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump's presumptive opponent, tweeted: "A wall will not stop the coronavirus. Banning all travel from Europe -- or any other part of the world -- will not stop it. This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet -- and we need a plan to combat it." At a town hall meeting, he said "this is no time for Donald Trump's record of hysteria and xenophobia, hysterical xenophobia … and fearmongering."

And all this despite the fact that it is pretty well documented that the Chinese government misled, witheld information about the virus and tried to cover it up, essentially unleashing the pandemic on an unprepared world. In their rush to condemn every Trump decision as racist, Democrats wound up looking like out-of-touch partisans.

S.Jennings. (2020-3-26). A lot of Americans like Trump's handling of crisis. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/26/opinions/americans-like-trump-handling-crisis-opinion-jennings/index.html

大的方面说完了，来说说身边事。近期为某大型集团服务时了解到该上市公司正在抢抓进口设备，据说马上要开始封禁了。各大金融机构也开足马力为市里几个主要公司开立信用证以抓紧进口原材料。股市方面，近期一轮暴跌将股民的信心彻底摧毁。如中美第三轮贸易战开打，料想对中国2020年的经济将是摧毁性的。

最后，我看着家里的iPhone、Macbook、Buick陷入了沉思……（华为、小米、比亚迪加油！）