To think that China needs to act

[Dongdingdong]

From what I understand, the coronavirus originated in a wet market in Wuhan that sold animals both dead and alive. According to the Telegraph, these markets "pose a heightened risk of viruses jumping from animals to humans because hygiene standards are difficult to maintain if live animals are being kept and butchered on site. Typically, they are also densely packed."

Also: "The animal source of the latest outbreak has not yet been identified, but the original host is thought to be bats. Bats were not sold at the Wuhan market but may have infected live chickens or other animals sold there. Bats are host to a wide range of zoonotic viruses including Ebola, HIV and rabies."

When this latest pandemic dies down, the Chinese government needs to ban these wet markets entirely. Will the rest of the world be putting pressure on them to do so or will we simply continue as before until the next pandemic breaks out?

They won't shut it down when they still hold dog festivals.

Read a bit about pandemics.

Says the poster who previously said we’ve been due one “for decades” - conveniently forgetting swine flu hmm Hardly a font of all knowledge yourself are you?

Swine flu was not a pandemic - sighs

I would suspect China will do a major crack down, inspectors in every market, hunting down illegal traders, looking at food and live stock hygiene, harsh penalties, very harsh, but simply tell the world they have banned it and not go into any further detail.

They simply won’t wash their dirty linen in front of the world.

Clearly there are very cosmopolitan areas of China where wild animals, are not consumed for food, or used for traditional Medicine, there are simply regional pockets of it where it is both cultural and historical. I don’t think anyone can deny that. That’s where it came from.

The Chinese authorities will feel embarrassed this came from their country, the devastation, death, chaos it has caused globally , and that it likely came from an illegal act, that they failed to control. An act they made illegal but they then failed to enforce their own law properly.

I’d be very very surprised if there was not a stringent and harsh behind the scenes effort to control the trade in wild animals by the Chinese authorities that they do not reveal to the rest of the world

Exactly. This is an enormous loss of face for China. There will be severe penalties in place.

Like ShanghaiDiva, my family lived in Shanghai for 15 years, and I travelled there several times a year whilst my family lived there.

Loss of face is a huge thing in Chinese culture - they will work very hard to ensure this does not happen again. The effect on China and the Chinese people has been devastating.

I for one never saw anything like the picture posted in all my times in China

Yes and it’s that loss of face that will stop any corrective actions being made public globally. Because to articulate anything past “it’s banned”, would give an indication of scale, of what occurs, and risk global outrage.

I personally don’t think this is anything other than the perfect storm. China has become a major global player, with a highly mobile population and they have a lot of practices in the more outlying areas that are historical and cultural, and the two worlds collided. Decades ago this would have really only impacted China and been contained.

You see similar in many other countries to a lesser extent, because they are not global players, the population less mobile, and the practices either due to culture or religion, but much more contained within the community .

In reality though the world should have seen this coming, we have had warnings, let’s face it, with previous out breaks. Everyone knew.

Maybe I’m the eternal optimist, but I’d be willing to bet good money that China is in major crack down mode. And if anyone is able to do it. They are.

This is an enormous loss of face for China

It is indeed, and knowing how important that is within the culture it may be the best chance of something actually being done
However tradition is also a huge priority, so given the rulers' extreme secretiveness I don't imagine it will be easy to establish what's been done as opposed to what's simply being claimed

All of which is why I agree the international community may enforce a complete ban on the movement of people out of China until the position becomes clearer

Exactly. Decades ago it would only have affected China, as most people were not wealthy enough to travel (ignoring other restrictions). I have seen even in the last 10 years more and more people travelling overseas for the spring festival holiday, whereas in the past people celebrated at home.
Tough measures are being taken now to prevent the virus coming back into zero case cities and no doubt even tougher measures behind the scenes.

China has one fifth of the world's population and one of the world's largest economies. There aren't going to be sanctions on China. It's just not going to happen.

All we can hope for is that the Chinese themselves take this in hand - they had the chance after SARS in 2003 but didn't fully take it. It's not like the Chinese govt is squeamish about taking harsh measures against what they consider illegal behaviour, so don't see why this couldn't be strictly enforced.

Such hypocrisy here. That's exactly what we did by letting a massive chunk of the British middle classes do their nornal ski trips to Italy at half term when it was completely clear what would happen, as well as all the post HT ski jollies up until the week before last. We had a golden opportunity to nip this in the bud by preventing travel over half term and we did fuck all

People knew the risks then, but the people of Wuhan were kept in the dark for at least a month. They knew cases of community transmission by early January.

No one wants to die abroad in isolation but people were allowed to travel during the Chinese New Year in late January and never came home.

Let’s not forget the Chinese government complained when the US put up a travel ban; even the WHO said the move to enact a travel ban was hasty as late as early February. A grave mistake, in hindsight.

www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3048794/who-chief-calls-caution-coronavirus-trade-and-travel-bans-china

Loss of face is a huge thing in Chinese culture - they will work very hard to ensure this does not happen again

I wish I could believe this but they allowed civet cat to be sold again as exotic meat after having it banned post SARS.

They usually do big showy crackdowns, but once the authorities look the other way, it might snake back in.

I personally don’t think this is anything other than the perfect storm. China has become a major global player, with a highly mobile population and they have a lot of practices in the more outlying areas that are historical and cultural, and the two worlds collided. Decades ago this would have really only impacted China and been contained.

Yes this is very interesting.

We have chased cheap goods too. Not excusing this shit show and the origin though.

It’s not just the situation with animals in China I’m concerned about. What about the environmental impact of all their factories, the pollution etc? It’s become blindingly obvious that China is a liability.

I will be boycotting all goods made in China from now on.

I imagine that once we’re through this, there will be huge repercussions for China from other world governments too.

Look at the rhino horns needed
Look at the rhino horns needed
Look at the rhino horns needed

China need to wake up and take responsibility for their actions now. Their practices with regards to animals are utterly shameful and disgusting. I don’t give a toss if it’s a flipping cultural tradition. These need to change big time and pronto.

If things don’t change drastically, I foresee huge and potentially justifiable problems for the Chinese with regards to racism, etc.

I feel sorry for the many Chinese people who don’t buy into these practises, I really do.

To say that this has been a monumental cock up is the understatement of the century. Yes, China does need to change this practice - regardless of whether it is "culturally engrained" practice or otherwise. Sars was bad enough, and lessons should have been learned from that but apparently not enough. Massive questions need to be asked and learned from about the very early management of this pandemic.

I will be boycotting all goods made in China from now on.
Good luck with replacing any electronics in the future. Oh and don't forget the recent Chinese purchase of a steel plant in the UK - make sure you know where that material goes to and the goods that it ends up in. Best to be thorough in your boycott

We have chased cheap goods too.
Yes we have, but lots of us seem to be happy to ignore our side of the bargain and our gains in all these years of economic development now. Because we're scared and need a bogey man.

We are all scared, it is a huge unknown we're ALL facing. All this hate and anger does nothing to help the situation, only makes it worse for us here in the UK inc. British Chinese and people in China and elsewhere.

I was somewhat pissed off to read a headline somewhere yesterday about the Chinese government 'lecturing' Europe on how to deal with this .... why don't they lecture their own people on stopping these vile and unnecessary practices, so the whole world would not be in this catastrophic situation? They're not hunter-gatherers, living in caves, no need at all to eat bats or whatever when you live in a huge city with shops and adequate food supplies.

Ime the more unusual items are expensive delicacies and not consumed because adequate alternatives do not exist. Shark fin soup, turtle etc have been served to me and dh at high end restaurants with the objective of impressing us.
Whatever people’s thoughts are regarding China, as they have the most experience of any country in managing this epidemic it would seem sensible to listen to what they say and look at what they have done. Now is the time to learn from each other. Plenty of time for blame analysis later.

Agree with @EdithHope

And with @ShanghaiDiva

There are indigenous people in the world who kill and eat wild food but they dont cause worldwide destruction. Maybe its more about poor hygiene practices. Even really poor countries without access to clean water dont spread this level of chaos.

I’m glad someone posted about this. It does concern me that these viruses originate in China who are incredible mobile and yet after SARS they have done nothing.

Trump is preping the world for active war against China including nukes.

Trump is preping the world for active war against China including nukes

Go away.

I don't think China needs the rest of the world to tell her anything. China has suffered just as much, if not more, than any other country will.

It is a horrendous situation, but the people who now realise that China should have had better enforced food safety regulations overlap rather well with the people who didn't take European 'red tape' that seriously, including food safety regulation.

Back in Europe, we weren't born with better health and safety regulations. We evolved them, in response to various public health crises over the years.