How’s the old saw go? “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”?
Yeah, that’s it – and we best keep it in mind when it comes to any coronavirus news – hey, any news on anything at all – coming to us courtesy of the Red Dragon.
According to The Blaze’s Aaron Colen:
According to reports from the Chinese government, the worst of the coronavirus outbreak in the communist nation has passed, and even the hardest-hit regions have started returning to normal.
Those reports are being disputed by local Chinese officials who say the government is using deceptive measures to create the appearance of normal business operations and productivity, according to the Chinese media outlet Caixin.
First, let’s hope those heroically candid “local officials” are in hiding somewhere, in disguise, deep, deep undercover. There could be a bounty on their heads. Chi-Com goons haven’t developed much of a reputation of tolerance for being called out by anyone; ever.
Recall, this is the same government which, last autumn and early winter, kept under wraps their own intensifying struggles with the now world-wrapping virus; which permitted thousands and thousands of its – possibly infected – citizens to heedlessly fan out across the planet in the intervening months, exporting their nation’s pathogenic quandary to the rest of us. China is the same tyranny which punished the doctor who sounded the original alarm about the plague (they forced him to recant; and he later contracted coronavirus died from it.).
So, sunny reports currently issuing from Xi Jinping and Co. aren’t necessarily being accepted with uncritical openness? Probably not an altogether bad idea. Ben Shapiro recently allowed, considering the Chi-Coms unsavory history of duplicity, it’s indeed probably best not to give them the benefit of the doubt. They certainly haven’t earned it.
What ought we expect, come to that, from a godless, communist despotism with a brutish reputation for relocating or rubbing out anyone who challenges its iron authority? Or who they suspect might be contemplating doing so?
We ought to expect precisely the kind of unscrupulous behavior we’ve seen from the Middle Kingdom all through this coronavirus outrage; and, it appears, what we might still be seeing even now.
A generation ago, President Ronald Reagan described his attitude toward another, now-defunct Communist monolith by quoting a proverb popular in that same monolith: “Trust but verify.” That turned out to be the prudent approach; it worked: the Soviet Union disintegrated as the United States maintained a sturdy protocol of rigorous caution and even skepticism toward it.
The “verify” part of that formulation definitely must be applied to anything claimed by the current Chinese regime. That “trust” piece? The Chinese government may not merit that honor at all. Not even a little bit. At least not right now.
H/T: The Blaze
