Should the Chinese government be made to pay?

[Likethebattle]

Amig had been suggested that the Chinese government covered up the seriousness of covid19 to begin with and delayed alerting the WHO. They apparently let thousands of people leave the country knowingly infecting the rest of the world with a deadly virus.

If this is true can they be held accountable and made to pay damages to other countries? We face a recession due to their actions.

@Nikhedonia and some ex colonial countries still have to pay the country that colonised them money yearly. Until Britain pays back everything they stole from ex colonies I think frankly British people should shut up about China paying for something.

I do agree with wet markets being shut though.

Sure... and USA can pay for E. coli O157. Plus norovirus. Who wouldn't like someone to pay for norovirus?

China fucked up massively and don’t exactly have a stellar CV but I don’t fancy history repeating itself much at the moment.

China's been militarising for years.
Google "South China Sea" and "blue ocean navy" and anything to do with Australian security concerns and debt politics in the South Pacific.

Conflict's happening no matter what we do, I'm afraid.

We'll be fucked in England if we had to pay for any damage we caused worldwide.

@cinammonbuns agree, but would replace British for English

Make the Chinese Pay?

You and whose army?

Nikhedonia

The Scots were quite hearty participants in colonialisation and came to union with England as a result of their own independent attempt at it.

Is it right that the Chinese government never closed the wet markets and wild animal farms because they were lobbying WHO to promote Traditional Chinese medicine?

We'll be fucked in England if we had to pay for any damage we caused worldwide.

This. We ruined, impoverished and abused the entire globe and now we have a boo boo? Ridiculous nonsense peddled by idiots who don't know their history. There is every chance the plague partly spawned the renaissance. Maybe Covid will leave us better off if we come together as a world, instead of these petty, insular, jingoistic arguments.

The confusion over wet markets is slightly annoying. A wet market is just a Fresh food market, a dry market it’s basically a craft and dry goods one. We have wet markets for gods sake. Every country does. What folks want thr Chinese to ban is the trade in protected species and live animals not wet markets.

I don’t think the Chinese should be “punished” but I’m concerned their huge tariff on Australian barley will start a trade war. A trade war that will damage the global economy.

It really is better to focus on what caused this and how to prevent it as far as possible ever happening again. Rather than focus on punishment.

It really is better to focus on what caused this and how to prevent it as far as possible ever happening again. Rather than focus on punishment.

^This.

Just an FYI:

edition.cnn.com/2020/04/14/asia/china-wet-market-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html

I totally called it in january

So... not exactly a brilliant 'cover up'?
It was indeed clear in January that this disease might have the characteristics to cause a pandemic so I'm afraid the blame for that occurring lies more with governments in the rest of the world who didn't take it seriously enough.

@PicsInRed and the people in the north of Ireland?

A wet market is just a Fresh food market

Yes, the 'wet' refers to the ice used to keep the food cool. The floor gets wet as it melts.

And the reality of food and eating is that in many parts of many countries, there isn't reliable electricity or refrigeration. Keeping food animals alive is the one real way to avoid spoiling. Diarrhea causes half a million deaths a year in under-fives and is the leading cause of malnutrition. About 1.6 million deaths annually from diarrhea.

So if I am a mum in a rural area of China or Africa, buying live animals means my child is less likely to die of one of the leading causes of death. 'Fresh food' means something different in majority world countries. Culturally, you can see how live food is important.

Wild food is more complicated. Are there any cultures without an element of fancy wild food? In the UK it's venison, France it's boar, Canada salmon, and yes monkey in Congo and bat in China. Just because it's foreign, we think it's disgusting. It isn't any more than what we do. We just killed most of our wild foods ages ago.

Interesting point Mrs.
I hadn't looked at it that way.

Plus the fact, it might take a generation or two for certain tastes to die out in the population.

What's absolutely necessary now, in terms of refrigeration might in 30 years be a kind of home hobby like fishing is here. Not necessary but it's a taste of childhood maybe, the food your mother made you is something many people dont lose the taste for.

made to pay

Yeah, good luck with that.

Made to pay?

How?

You might want to look at supply chains before thinking about sanctions....

...shall we start with drug production and PPE?

@PicsInRedand the people in the north of Ireland

Ulster Planters and the displacement of the original ethnic Irish population.

...shall we start with drug production and PPE?

Back in the days of the debt crisis, many countries in the majority world tried to default on debt (because it was punitive). The consequences were awful. One American politician said, "what would happen to a country that couldn't supply insulin to its diabetics?"

China makes everything. They aren't going to allow anyone else to tell them what to do.

Wild food is more complicated. Are there any cultures without an element of fancy wild food? In the UK it's venison, France it's boar, Canada salmon, and yes monkey in Congo and bat in China. Just because it's foreign, we think it's disgusting. It isn't any more than what we do. We just killed most of our wild foods ages ago.

Except I’ve never heard of our venison causing a fucking global pandemic, so maybe a little bit different, no?

I have learned over the years not to engage with certain posters

Do you want the next emerging pandemic to be covered up ten times worse than anything you might accuse China of having done? Because that's what we'll get if we try to demand reparations from countries where new diseases happen to originate.

@PicsInRed how is that the historical fault of the people from the north of Ireland. I think the historical atrocities committed by the English are disgraceful.