China

Muzzling the Dragon

Muzzling the Dragon

A declining Chinese economy should be more a cause for celebration than despair

How reliable are China’s GDP numbers? In a country where delivery drivers with fake licenses can fill up their fake-brand motorbikes with fake petrol before delivering fake products to their customers, one would be forgiven for questioning the government’s official data. In most countries GDP is the sum of all produced final goods relative to their price, China ostensibly adopted this approach in line with UN guidelines in 1994 but when scrutinised the data appears somewhat suspect.

The Crimes of Tedros Adhanom

The Crimes of Tedros Adhanom

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as well as being the first WHO director without a medical degree, also has a somewhat political background compared to his predecessors. On his online biography, the WHO lays out his qualifications as Ethiopian Minister of Health from 2002 to 2012, impressive stuff.

Aside from his medical credentials, Tedros happens to be a member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which is an organisation about as peaceful as its name suggests. Founded as a communist revolutionary party that came to power in 1991, it led a guerrilla campaign against the Mengistu dictatorship and formed a coalition with two other ethnic parties after his exile.

Is the Wuhan Coronavirus a Bio-weapon?

Is the Wuhan Coronavirus a Bio-weapon?

Unravelling the conspiracy

In a now widely circulated 2018 interview with Chinese state TV, military scientist Chen Hu was asked about the capabilities of an engineered bio-weapon. Hu described the effects of such weapons as ‘devastating’ and ‘equaling that of an atomic bomb’. He then went on to appeal the need for creating defensive capabilities against such events.

A year after he gave that interview Dr. Chen was dead at age 57. In his obituary the numerous achievements of the scientist were outlined, among them the fact that despite being a military doctor, he had helped develop groundbreaking research using CRISPR gene editing; specifically the mice embryos that had been given an engineered resistance to HIV in 2017.

Why China Won't Reform

Why China Won't Reform

Facing up to the new threat

In 1994, US President Bill Clinton gave a press conference in China to discuss relations between the two countries, and the state of human rights development. Five years after thousands had been gunned down in the streets of Beijing and hundreds more killed in Tibet, they were looking less than optimal.

Ever the optimist though, Bill made it clear that although there were serious human rights abuses continuing in China, he was sure they were dreadfully sorry about what had happened in 89, and felt things were improving. Just like Korea and Taiwan, he said, it was clear that as Western products flooded into China, democratisation would inevitably follow. China even enjoyed most favoured nation status with the US all throughout the 1990s in an attempt to accelerate this process. Putting up with the show trials and labour camps were just the cost of doing business.