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Comment by b0rsuk | Hacker News Reader

Ever heard that Taiwan is doing a stellar job holding off coronavirus? No, because China presses WHO into not mentioning Taiwan. We could learn a lot from Taiwan. China doesn't just boycott Taiwan, it makes others act as if the country doesn't exist.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/taiwan

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There's a frozen civil war in China. The government is obviously touchy about other countries recognizing what it views as a breakaway province. China views such recognition as meddling in its internal affairs.

In Western news coverage, though, I see precisely the opposite of what you see. Taiwan is often listed as an example to follow, while China's combating of the epidemic is largely ignored. A lot of people even seem to think that the epidemic is still raging in China, but that it's all just being covered up.

a) It's not Western news coverage but international.

b) No one believes anything China has to say because they have a history of coverups and suppression.

c) The lack of an independent press or judiciary means we don't have mechanisms to independently assess the truth.

It's not actually difficult to know what the basic situation is in China right now. Go on YouTube Twitter, or any other large social media platform and look at what people who are currently in China are saying. Even in this thread, I'm sure that some of the commenters are in China.

You can also look coverage by Western press in China. A German-French public broadcaster did a report from Wuhan not too long ago that shows how different the situation is there from Europe and the US: [1,2].

By the way, documents from Hubei province have leaked, and the number of people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 in internal government records roughly matches the numbers that were published each day.

1. German: https://youtu.be/LmsI7lc2_Vg

2. French: https://youtu.be/OyHt7-KmK7Y

Since you mention YouTube, I quickly compile a list of Westerners who have lived some time in China, i.e. not tourists. To help people make decision if they are brainwashed. But usually "Brainwash" means brainwashed people can not find they are brainwashed.

List A: These 2 guys are thinkers then others. They should be working on different job. Expecially in Western intellegence to help westener better undrestading China)

1. Cyrus Janssen(American)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxEQsjgRRfGWiJJu_PDygxw

2. Daniel Dumbrill(Canadian)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Bl8MTbW9M9MQoPhxbarpw

List B: (Positive)

3 Matt (American)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Ykci4MKSSdTJYuYp53G7A

4 Gweilo 60 (Canadian. Mainly positive. He also talked about negative side)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChXOhG9bRDb3vSTg-qkPAZg

5 Jason(British)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzDE2LGSmJnw53WrZ7mM_Aw

6 Nathan Rish(American. Seem a little opinionted)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaSlyjhR4WC7QhYuaivxb6g

List C: (Negative, but was positive)

7 serpentza (South African, the oldest vlogger about China)

https://www.youtube.com/user/serpentza

8 laowhy86 (American)

https://www.youtube.com/user/laowhy86

(edit) reformat

Taiwan is not a country in China's eyes. Technically Taiwan is really not a country but works like one since 1949. If you follow Winnie the Poh closely enough, he has claimed "Taiwan problem will not be passed onto next generation". My personal estimate is that Taiwan will be taken by force within 20 years.

Do you feel it'd be an amphibious invasion would be a bit of a pyrrhic victory within 20 years? I feel like the PRC would be unpopular with the citizens of Taiwan and not look good internationally.

My impression is that the PRC was sabre-rattling to rally the public.

PRC appears to be unpopular with significant numbers of Hong Kong residents and it most definitely didn't look good internationally. That doesn't necessarily stop them from taking power.

My personal estimate is that Taiwan will become a forgotten remnant after Pooh Jinping goes into the void in 20 years.

If Taiwan is not a country but a Chinese province, why is China ashamed of it? A province famous for electronic industry and very successful against global pandemic.

I'm not the GP, but:

Yes, I heard about it plenty of times.

It's great that they're doing well, but that doesn't diminish the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Newzealandese accomplishments in tackling covid19

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