Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)

tidalwave

Senior Member
Registered Member
Since US not likely to touch China Treasury. It is working toward stripping China sovereign immunity and going after China state oversea assets.
 

localizer

Colonel
Registered Member
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Now the Trump Administration spin is that China hoarded medical supplies after complaining with alarm how China was helping the world. There were figures used as an example China accounts for the majority of masks supply in the world yet they only shipped 48-49% to the world during the crisis. Aren't those Chinese masks? The same masks they claim were faulty and now demand? What says China is obligated to send its masks to the world when demanded? And remember how allies were hoarding and not helping their fellow allies... If they're not making masks at home, that's their fault. Of course that's spin just like with the Haiti earthquake where Western countries were sending rescue teams but then were accused by locals of looking and helping only their citizens and then all of the sudden the Western media was reporting that Chinese rescue teams were only searching for their citizens. See how easy it is for them to change the narrative without a beat?


Best to do is not give a damn.

Just do business and ignore all the noise.
 

Wangxi

Junior Member
Registered Member
China must abandon the "Soviet" journalistic style and adapt to a Western audience to make its voice heard better

This crisis highlight the lack of soft power of China, China has no influential media and don't have a strong voice in the West

China must invest in more modern media to target a western audience (No one is watching Cgtn, xinhua or others), it must take example from how little Qatar succeeded in founding Al Jazeera
 

Gatekeeper

Brigadier
Registered Member
China must abandon the "Soviet" journalistic style and adapt to a Western audience to make its voice heard better

This crisis highlight the lack of soft power of China, China has no influential media and don't have a strong voice in the West

China must invest in more modern media to target a western audience (No one is watching Cgtn, xinhua or others), it must take example from how little Qatar succeeded in founding Al Jazeera

You do realise that the "success" of Al Jazeera is because it is pro-western! Next time you watch their news, listen carefully, they almost parrot every words. In addition, they are seen as a threat to the MSM. whereas China's media is perceived to be the biggest threat to the west. Look at what happened to the Chinese agencies recently getting expelled. All getting classified as government "agents". So much for free press!
 

Wangxi

Junior Member
Registered Member
You do realise that the "success" of Al Jazeera is because it is pro-western! Next time you watch their news, listen carefully, they almost parrot every words. In addition, they are seen as a threat to the MSM. whereas China's media is perceived to be the biggest threat to the west. Look at what happened to the Chinese agencies recently getting expelled. All getting classified as government "agents". So much for free press!

When I speak of Al Jazeera I am not only talking about his influence in the Western world, but his influence especially in the Arab world
to such an extent that one of the reasons for the blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries was the al jazeera channel.

But this is an example of how a small country like Qatar can build an influential channel, even on youtube Al Jazeera is really popular, no Arab channel competes with it.

China ? on the chinese media youtube channels we see panda pictures with classical music, how do you want to target an audience from the west?

Even the enemies of China (falun gong) have a much better propaganda (NDTV, the Epoch Times)

Russia understands this and the RT channel is much more influential (especially on the web) than the Chinese media

China can invest billions in more effective propaganda and media to target a western audience

China must boost its soft power because of Western media attacks on all subjects (Hong Kong, debt trap, Xinjiang) the voice of China cannot be heard

Chinese media are runned by 70-year-old bureaucrats who don't understand the Western mentality, they must replaced by young Chinese who have studied in the West

China is trying to become more aggressive, we see it in particular through its ambassadors and diplomats who have all created a twitter accounts to express themselves to the world, now I hope they will adapt their media to target an audience in the west
 

coolieno99

Junior Member
Posted by Vincent at CDF:

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By Dilyana Gaytandzhieva - May 2, 2020

Two years ago, I investigated an alleged laboratory accident at the Lugar Center, the Pentagon biolaboratory in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, which had resulted in the death of two Filipinos working in the laboratory. The death cases were hidden by the local authorities but I recorded on camera witnesses who testified about this tragic incident.

However, what then seemed to me to be a local issue, turned out to be part of a bigger story. The Lugar Center in Georgia is just one of the many Pentagon biolaboratories in 25 countries across the world. They are funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under a $ 2.1 billion military program – Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP), and are located in former Soviet Union countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa. Much of their work is classified and includes projects on bio-agents and pathogens with pandemic potential.

The first known case of use of biological weapons in our history was 250 years ago when the British gave blankets infected with smallpox to the indigenous people of North America. As a result, a great many of them died and the British Empire gained control over the whole continent. 250 years on, history repeats itself. Biological weapons are definitely much more effective than nuclear weapons. The use of nuclear weapons leaves traces: an airplane taking off from an aerodrome and launching a rocket, a large number of participants in preparation of an attack. Therefore, the perpetrators can be easily detected and held to account. Conversely, viruses can be used as weapons, though, they do not leave such immediate or discernible traces and it takes only a few crazy people who have decided to kill millions.

According to some scientific estimates, biological weapons can potentially destroy up to two thirds of the global population in just a year. Our world is one big metropolis and even one virus engineered in a laboratory would be able to fulfil this goal in a short period of time, at a minimal cost and without leaving traces to the perpetrator.

Below, I am presenting information about what I have discovered while investigating Pentagon biolaboratories abroad.

Genetic Study on Bats

The Lugar Center, a $161 million Pentagon-funded biolaboratory in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, discovered coronaviruses in bats with presumably pandemic potential as early as 2014, documents have revealed.

Furthermore, in 2018 the Pentagon launched a $2.9 million program at the Lugar Center involving genetic studies on coronaviruses in 5,000 bats collected in Georgia, Turkey and Jordan.

Coincidentally, the same Pentagon contractor tasked with the US DoD bat-research program – Eco Health Alliance, USA, also collected bats and isolated coronaviruses along with Chinese scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Eco Health Alliance received a $3.7 million grant from the US National Institute of Health (NIH) to collect and study coronaviruses in bats in China from 2014 to 2019.

Novel Coronaviruses

The Lugar Center sparked controversy about possible dual-use research in 2018 when leaked documents revealed that US diplomats in Georgia were involved in trafficking of frozen human blood and pathogens for a secret military program.

Documents reveal that the Lugar Center also studied coronaviruses in bats.

In 2012 the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) collected and sampled 236 bats for research in Georgia in cooperation with the Lugar Center. The project was funded by the US DoD Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Part of the samples were shipped to CDC (Atlanta), for screening for multiple pathogens, another part was stored at the Lugar Center for further studies.

In 2014 the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) launched a second project “Emerging zoonotic pathogens in Georgian bats” along with Georgian scientists at the Lugar Center. The project was funded by the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC).

Former Bioweapon Scientists working at the Lugar Center

ISTC, the organisation that funded the bat project in Georgia in 2014, was established in 1992 as a non-proliferation international program, providing former biological and chemical weapons scientists with new opportunities for sustainable, peaceful employment. Seven of the Georgian scientists involved in the ISTC bat research project in Georgia turn out to be former bioweapon scientists who had previously worked on the development of bioweapons, according to the ISTC project documents. Among them is Paata Imnadze, the deputy-director of the Georgian National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) where the Lugar Center is located.

ISTC-G-2101-page-020.jpg


7 out of 12 Lugar Center employees involved in the bat research project were former bioweapon scientists who had previously worked on the development of biological weapons in the past.

mirtskhulavmerab_CV-page-001.jpg


One of the Georgian scientists, Merab Mirtskhulava, has also identified himself as a former bioweapon scientist in his CV published on the University of Michigan’s website. He analysed the data collected under the ISTC G-2101 project.
Pathogens with pandemic potential

The Georgian National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) did mention briefly the ISTC Project G-2101 in its 2016 annual report.

2016-Annual-Report-NCDC.jpg


250 bats were tested for presence of Lyssavirus, Coronavirus, Yersinia, Leptospira and Brucella pathogens. It is noted that 30 percent of the fecal samples and anal swabs had tested positive for coronaviruses by PCR from five different phylogenetic groups (source: NCDC 2016 Annual Report)

The Lugar Center discovered coronaviruses, similar to the epidemic SARS and MERS coronaviruses, according to the ISTC project manager and Lugar Center virologist Lela Urushadze. These results were published by Urushadze in her dissertation submitted to the Ilia State University in 2018.

Both SARS and MERS CoV have a pandemic potential and already caused global epidemics in 2003 and 2013 respectively.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated the overall fatality rate for SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) patients at 14% to 15%, and for MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) – at 35 %. Below are excerpts from the Urushadze’s dissertation:

“Based on our research, we can say that bats in Georgia are reservoirs of such bacterial and viral pathogens as Bartonella, Coronavirus, Leptospira and Brucella, which are likely to have pandemic potential”, according to Lela Urushadze. She explains: “In total we have captured 450 bats using nets and hand nets from eight different roosts. The experimental materials were collected twice in 2012 and 2014. They were transported in a field laboratory or BSL 3 Laboratory for further processing and research for presence of the above mentioned pathogens”.

According to the study, three samples tested positive for beta coronaviruses and were closely related to the MERS-beta coronavirus isolated in an infected patient in Saudi Arabia who died, as well as to MERS coronaviruses in camels in Saudi Arabia and Dubai.

The Georgian coronaviruses were similar to beta coronaviruses discovered in bats in Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and to the pandemic SARS coronavirus with lethal outcome in Amsterdam, China, Florida and Colorado. The Lugar Center scientists also discovered SARS-like coronaviruses similar to those in bats in China and Thailand.

In her dissertation Lela Urishadze thanks the Pentagon Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) “for the material assistance”. Lela Urushadze is a member of the DTRA-supported organisation – BOHRN (Bat One Health research Network) which studies viruses in bats.

US military program on bats and coronaviruses

In 2018 the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) itself launched a $2.9 million project on bats and coronaviruses in Western Asia with the Lugar Center being the local laboratory for this genetic research. The duration of the program is 5 years and has been implemented by the non-profit US organisation Eco Health Alliance.

HDTRA11710064.jpg


The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has awarded Eco Health Alliance a $2.9 million grant to study bat-borne zoonotic diseases in Western Asia (source: govtribe.com)
The project’s objectives are: 1. Capture and non-lethally sample 5,000 bats in 5-year period (2018-2023) 2. Collect 20,000 samples (i.e. oral, rectal swabs and/or feces, and blood) and screen for CoVs using consensus PCR at regional labs in Georgia and Jordan. According to the project presentation, Eco Health Alliance already sampled 270 bats of 9 species in three Western Asian countries: 90 individual bats in Turkey (Aug 2018), Georgia (Sept 2018), and Jordan (Oct 2018).

$3.7 million for coronavirus research in China

Eco Health Alliance was also awarded a $3.7 million grant from the US National Institute of Health (NIH) to collect bats and isolate coronaviruses in China. The duration of the project was 5 years (2014 – 2019) and was implemented at the Wuhan Institute of Virology – a BSL4 biolaboratory located in Wuhan, Hubei province. ....

Due to 10000 chars limit go to following link to read the complete report, including part about China.
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manqiangrexue

Brigadier
When I speak of Al Jazeera I am not only talking about his influence in the Western world, but his influence especially in the Arab world
to such an extent that one of the reasons for the blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries was the al jazeera channel.

But this is an example of how a small country like Qatar can build an influential channel, even on youtube Al Jazeera is really popular, no Arab channel competes with it.

China ? on the chinese media youtube channels we see panda pictures with classical music, how do you want to target an audience from the west?

Even the enemies of China (falun gong) have a much better propaganda (NDTV, the Epoch Times)

Russia understands this and the RT channel is much more influential (especially on the web) than the Chinese media

China can invest billions in more effective propaganda and media to target a western audience

China must boost its soft power because of Western media attacks on all subjects (Hong Kong, debt trap, Xinjiang) the voice of China cannot be heard

Chinese media are runned by 70-year-old bureaucrats who don't understand the Western mentality, they must replaced by young Chinese who have studied in the West

China is trying to become more aggressive, we see it in particular through its ambassadors and diplomats who have all created a twitter accounts to express themselves to the world, now I hope they will adapt their media to target an audience in the west
It's not even the issue of who does better propaganda. The core is that your government controls what you see (unless you have a very strong objection to seek out opposing ideals). Western propaganda does not win over Chinese people in China and Chinese propaganda does not win over Americans in America. The reason it looks like American propaganda is more effective over the Western world than China's is because of the decades of tradition of seeing America as a global leader and being allies in democracy. With the current clown show POTUS, that credit wears thinner by the day and already many news in Europe are saying that China is doing a much better job than the US in the pandemic, which is true.

Now to put an incredible amount of effort into propaganda hoping it will win hearts in America is plainly wasting time. An example is this: even though Trump's ideas are almost impossibly stupid, he still gets a good deal of support for them. Americans will covet organizations like the UN, WTO, WHO, and allies like Japan, Germany, Britain, etc... until any kind of rift happens and they will start to bash them, calling them unfair, needing to be disbanded, or needing another WWII beatdown/ungrateful for the help they received in WWII. It's really not about American propaganda being better than German/British/Japanese, etc... It's all about your government controls what you hear. You can't beat American media in the US; you cannot beat German media in Germany, and you cannot beat Chinese media in China.
 
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