Apple CEO Tim Cook 'Secretly' Signed $275 Billion Deal With China in 2016

[Maximara]

Vaccine or not, now omicron is gonna get you, while China’s proven methods will succeed once again.

Again we are dealing with numbers that, like China's economic figures, we can't trust. (Covid-19 deaths in Wuhan seem far higher than the official count). That is an issue with a government that tries to control every piece of information that gets out to the outside world.

 

[cbautis2]

Vaccine or not, now omicron is gonna get you, while China’s proven methods will succeed once again.

Better for everyone anyways as natural immunity is the most powerful way of protection

 

[macdos]

Again we are dealing with numbers that, like China's economic figures, we can't trust. (Covid-19 deaths in Wuhan seem far higher than the official count). That is an issue with a government that tries to control every piece of information that gets out to the outside world.

Again, you can't really hide a pandemic. The consequences would be immediately obvious to everyone, with over-crowded hospitals. Nobody sees any of that in China.

 

[macdos]

Better for everyone anyways as natural immunity is the most powerful way of protection

Exactly the attitude that brought America into this mess…

Thing is, though, that your immunity against previous strains are nullified by omicron, and the same goes for vaccines. It is called evolution, and it is the reason we are never getting immune against either influenza or the common cold (another coronavirus). The same is true for sars-cov-2.

Unfortunately, it is not at all given that sars-cov-2 will become another common cold virus with milder symptoms, it might as well go the way of influenza, with periodic strains of more acute type, like the Spanish flu, the Hong Kong flu, swine flu and so on.

Whenever such an epidemic or pandemic arises, and it will again, your only defense is social distancing and quarantine until vaccines are made available. This is what China and other countries in East Asia know, and this is why they are so successful, while Americans are fighting for the "right" to not wear a face mask…

 

[Maximara]

Again, you can't really hide a pandemic.

Sure you can. Both sides hid the 1918 Flu Pandemic until it showed up in Spain where neither side could control the press and it may have been running around since 1917 (Canada) and had shown up in the US Feb 1918. If that can happen in democracies with a free press (limited by being at war) then imagine how much information can be limited by a nation that has tight control over its media

The consequences would be immediately obvious to everyone, with over-crowded hospitals. Nobody sees any of that in China.

China's hospitals were over-crowded even before the pandemic ("Most patients in China prefer to visit tertiary hospitals even for common and minor illnesses since they can freely choose which doctors and medical institutions to visit.") and it has gotten to the point China still tries to downplay how overworked its hospital staff is. Heck there is even Trading quality for quantity? Evidence from patient level data in China which documents the over-crowding/lack of health staff.

 

[Maximara]

Exactly the attitude that brought America into this mess…

I agree.

Thing is, though, that your immunity against previous strains are nullified by omicron, and the same goes for vaccines. It is called evolution, and it is the reason we are never getting immune against either influenza or the common cold (another coronavirus). The same is true for sars-cov-2.

Plagues and People (1976) should be read by anyone who believes in this herd immunity nonsense. We are just lucky this thing hasn't been a replay of the 1918 flu which ranged between 17 to 50 million dead with a few going as high as 100 million ie more people (not counting the famines) than WWI and WWII combined.

Unfortunately, it is not at all given that sars-cov-2 will become another common cold virus with milder symptoms, it might as well go the way of influenza, with periodic strains of more acute type, like the Spanish flu, the Hong Kong flu, swine flu and so on.

Whenever such an epidemic or pandemic arises, and it will again, your only defense is social distancing and quarantine until vaccines are made available. This is what China and other countries in East Asia know, and this is why they are so successful, while Americans are fighting for the "right" to not wear a face mask…

More like fighting for the "right" to be a Darwin Award winner. There are times it feels like I am living in a real world version of Idiocracy (2006).

 

[macdos]

Sure you can. Both sides hid the 1918 Flu Pandemic until it showed up in Spain where neither side could control the press and it may have been running around since 1917 (Canada) and had shown up in the US Feb 1918. If that can happen in democracies with a free press (limited by being at war) then imagine how much information can be limited by a nation that has tight control over its media

China's hospitals were over-crowded even before the pandemic ("Most patients in China prefer to visit tertiary hospitals even for common and minor illnesses since they can freely choose which doctors and medical institutions to visit.") and it has gotten to the point China still tries to downplay how overworked its hospital staff is. Heck there is even Trading quality for quantity? Evidence from patient level data in China which documents the over-crowding/lack of health staff.

For crying out loud… the interconnectivity is somewhat different these days than during WWI… We know that the hospitals are not oberburdened, but operating at normal rate. Everyone with a 5G-connected Xiaomi is a constant witness to what is going on.

 

[Maximara]

For crying out loud… the interconnectivity is somewhat different these days than during WWI… We know that the hospitals are not oberburdened, but operating at normal rate. Everyone with a 5G-connected Xiaomi is a constant witness to what is going on.

As FactCheck showed things are not as simple as you think. Because US hospitals are for profit they are more likely to be near capacity so when COVID his things went pear shaped.

For crying out loud… the interconnectivity is somewhat different these days than during WWI… We know that the hospitals are not oberburdened, but operating at normal rate. Everyone with a 5G-connected Xiaomi is a constant witness to what is going on.

Read Media Censorship in China and wake up to reality.

 

[macdos]

As FactCheck showed things are not as simple as you think. Because US hospitals are for profit they are more likely to be near capacity so when COVID his things went pear shaped.


Read Media Censorship in China and wake up to reality.

Sigh… I can only conclude that you are completely unaware of the reality of a billion Chinese being interconnected, not only to each other but to people in the rest of the world. There simply is no way you could cover up a pandemic.

 

[Maximara]

Sigh… I can only conclude that you are completely unaware of the reality of a billion Chinese being interconnected, not only to each other but to people in the rest of the world. There simply is no way you could cover up a pandemic.

I take it you have no concept of a firewall. Many businesses have firewalls; they are set up so you cannot access or use certain parts of the internet. Heck, it even has a name: 防火长城 or in English "Great Firewall" and as time has gone on the CCP's crackdown on the internet but internal and with the outside world not only has become more thorough but more sophisticated. The closest thing in US society to the level of control China has over its internet would be the Wifi provided by military bases.

Then there is a very clever programs like Sesame Credit which have 1984 meets Brave New World vibes. Big Brother is watching you...and he is your neighbor. Sort of like the kind of social pressure that occurred in the US in the 1950's but dialed up to a 12.

Funny thing about the 1918 flu epidemic - one of the rumors was it was a bioweapon. Sound familiar?

 

[macdos]

I take it you have no concept of a firewall. Many businesses have firewalls; they are set up so you cannot access or use certain parts of the internet. Heck, it even has a name: 防火长城 or in English "Great Firewall" and as time has gone on the CCP's crackdown on the internet but internal and with the outside world not only has become more thorough but more sophisticated. The closest thing in US society to the level of control China has over its internet would be the Wifi provided by military bases.

Then there is a very clever programs like Sesame Credit which have 1984 meets Brave New World vibes. Big Brother is watching you...and he is your neighbor. Sort of like the kind of social pressure that occurred in the US in the 1950's but dialed up to a 12.

Funny thing about the 1918 flu epidemic - one of the rumors was it was a bioweapon. Sound familiar?

翻墙 (fan qiang) or jump the wall. Every educated Chinese knows how to use VPNs and other means to get around the GFW. The firewall is meant to be a speed bump, not an impermeable real wall, and that is why you see millions of Chinese using Twitter, Youtube and so on.

The firewall was never designed to make China a walled garden, but as a speed bump to favor local industry (Baidu, Sogou etc) and keep the US competition at bay.

Therefore, any anomaly in China will leak in a milliesecond to the rest of the world, not the least a pandemic wreaking havoc in society.

I again conclude that you can read silly articles on the internet, but that you have in fact never been to China, and that you don't know how it works.

 

[jjcs]

I take it you have no concept of a firewall. Many businesses have firewalls; they are set up so you cannot access or use certain parts of the internet. Heck, it even has a name: 防火长城 or in English "Great Firewall" and as time has gone on the CCP's crackdown on the internet but internal and with the outside world not only has become more thorough but more sophisticated. The closest thing in US society to the level of control China has over its internet would be the Wifi provided by military bases.

Then there is a very clever programs like Sesame Credit which have 1984 meets Brave New World vibes. Big Brother is watching you...and he is your neighbor. Sort of like the kind of social pressure that occurred in the US in the 1950's but dialed up to a 12.

Funny thing about the 1918 flu epidemic - one of the rumors was it was a bioweapon. Sound familiar?

You're arguing with a possibly-voluntary shill for a totalitarian government.

 

[Maximara]

You're arguing with a possibly-voluntary shill for a totalitarian government.

You must be new to the Internet. Not everyone who says something dumb or inciteful is a troll or shill. Some are just living examples of Hanlon's razor ("never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.")

 

[jjcs]

You must be new to the Internet. Not everyone who says something dumb or inciteful is a troll or shill. Some are just living examples of Hanlon's razor ("never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.")

Sometimes it really is malice. Now, one could make the argument that being a shill for a totalitarian government does, in fact, make one an idiot. Useful, or otherwise.

 

[macdos]

Sometimes it really is malice. Now, one could make the argument that being a shill for a totalitarian government does, in fact, make one an idiot. Useful, or otherwise.

Ad hominem and red-baiting, how original…

I couldn't care less about the Chinese government, but it does annoy me constantly hearing the smearing and the ignorant lies about China, seeing the hostility not only towards the government but also assaults against Chinese and Asian people in general.

The American empire was built on colonialism, slavery, genocide and racial exploitation, and the current hostilities are merely a continuation of that. America first. American exceptionalism.

Then it was the Chinese exclusion act, the Pigtail ordinance, the Anti-coolie act, and the Page act. Now it is the China exclusion policy, constant interference in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, the "China virus", "lab leak" conspiracy hypothesis &c ad infinitum. It never stops, the "yellow peril" is a constant with you.

Thankfully, that is all about to change, as the pandemic, the inflation, the political turbulence, and the gerontocratic leadership will accelerate the downfall. It is going to be a pleasure seeing the American empire die, not just for me, but for the majority of people in the world.

 

[Maximara]

Ad hominem and red-baiting, how original…

I couldn't care less about the Chinese government, but it does annoy me constantly hearing the smearing and the ignorant lies about China, seeing the hostility not only towards the government but also assaults against Chinese and Asian people in general.

The American empire was built on colonialism, slavery, genocide and racial exploitation, and the current hostilities are merely a continuation of that. America first. American exceptionalism.

That is true of all colonialism and nationalism. Japan's trip down that road in the 1930s and 40s was as bad as anything the European powers or America had done.

Then it was the Chinese exclusion act, the Pigtail ordinance, the Anti-coolie act, and the Page act.

The 19th century wasn't exactly roses and rainbows for the European immigrants either. Read The Jungle some time. In the 20th some variant of "No blacks Irish or dogs" signs also appeared in the UK as well as the US.

Now it is the China exclusion policy, constant interference in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, the "China virus", "lab leak" conspiracy hypothesis &c ad infinitum. It never stops, the "yellow peril" is a constant with you.

It's not the same as China's abuses are well documented.

Thankfully, that is all about to change, as the pandemic, the inflation, the political turbulence, and the gerontocratic leadership will accelerate the downfall. It is going to be a pleasure seeing the American empire die, not just for me, but for the majority of people in the world.

China isn't in that great a shape either. They are more over leveraged in terms of debt than the US is and thanks to the one child policy are speeding to an inverted population pyramid which is just going to make the economic situation worst. China’s economy is showing signs of stagflation, economists warn and China Has A Debt Problem Three Times Larger Than Evergrande

 

[jjcs]

Ad hominem and red-baiting, how original…

I'm surprised someone who can blithely dismiss the murder of 45 million people within living memory in that whole "Great Leap Forward" thing CAN be insulted. As far as "red-baiting", the variants of Communism have been the source for more misery than any other thing in history.

I couldn't care less about the Chinese government, but it does annoy me constantly hearing the smearing and the ignorant lies about China, seeing the hostility not only towards the government but also assaults against Chinese and Asian people in general.

Perhaps if the government of the PRC acted decently, but they don't.

Thankfully, that is all about to change, as the pandemic, the inflation, the political turbulence, and the gerontocratic leadership will accelerate the downfall. It is going to be a pleasure seeing the American empire die, not just for me, but for the majority of people in the world.

We've been a benign superpower. China won't be. Be careful what you wish for. Of course, if your wish were to come true, the most immediate effect would be world wide economic collapse (including the PRC). Just to start.

 

[Maximara]

I'm surprised someone who can blithely dismiss the murder of 45 million people within living memory in that whole "Great Leap Forward" thing CAN be insulted. As far as "red-baiting", the variants of Communism have been the source for more misery than any other thing in history.

Perhaps if the government of the PRC acted decently, but they don't.

We've been a benign superpower. China won't be. Be careful what you wish for. Of course, if your wish were to come true, the most immediate effect would be world wide economic collapse (including the PRC). Just to start.

I just found ADVChina and boy there are things the general public isn't aware of. Watching that I am surprised that China can keep the mask.they have from slipping.

 

[macdos]

I'm surprised someone who can blithely dismiss the murder of 45 million people within living memory in that whole "Great Leap Forward" thing CAN be insulted. As far as "red-baiting", the variants of Communism have been the source for more misery than any other thing in history.

Perhaps if the government of the PRC acted decently, but they don't.

We've been a benign superpower. China won't be. Be careful what you wish for. Of course, if your wish were to come true, the most immediate effect would be world wide economic collapse (including the PRC). Just to start.

Murder requires intent, and there was no intent to murder in the great leap forward.

As for the most murderous ideology in human history, that would certainly be Christianity, or Abrahamic or monotheistic religion in general. Only the Taiping rebellion in China cost 50 million lives.

Benign superpower? Is that your personal opinion, or that of those enslaved, supressed, murdered, conquered, invaded, and exploited by you all over the world for a couple of centuries? You are not as popular as you think.

 

[Maximara]

Murder requires intent, and there was no intent to murder in the great leap forward.

Frank Dikötter's Mao’s Great Famine says otherwise with executions or torture making up a great number of the deaths rather than simple starvation.

As for the most murderous ideology in human history, that would certainly be Christianity, or Abrahamic or monotheistic religion in general. Only the Taiping rebellion in China cost 50 million lives.

The leader of the Taiping rebellion claimed he was Jesus and Communism outpaces Christianity even with the later's 19 century head start.

Benign superpower? Is that your personal opinion, or that of those enslaved, supressed, murdered, conquered, invaded, and exploited by you all over the world for a couple of centuries? You are not as popular as you think.

What nation hasn't enslaved, suppressed, murdered, conquered, invaded, and exploited someone? Even before there were nations as we understand them that was the go to for Empire building. Rome immediately come to mind.

 

[jjcs]

Murder requires intent, and there was no intent to murder in the great leap forward.

Greatest Mass Murder In History

You dismiss this as mere incompetence. I'm sure Cook just prefers not to look at these things too closely. Gets in the way of his bottom line. He's a massive hypocrite.

While you insist in referring to the PRC as "Confucian", as opposed to a fascist government (some variant of that is the end result of all Communist movements), I'm wondering if executing dissidents, charging the families for the bullet, and selling their organs are somehow in line with that philosophy? I'm thinking not.

As for the most murderous ideology in human history, that would certainly be Christianity, or Abrahamic or monotheistic religion in general. Only the Taiping rebellion in China cost 50 million lives.

Not even close.

Benign superpower? Is that your personal opinion, or that of those enslaved, supressed, murdered, conquered, invaded, and exploited by you all over the world for a couple of centuries? You are not as popular as you think.

You blaming the US specifically for all that or Western Civilization in general?

 

[I7guy]

[…] He's a massive hypocrite.[…]

Does anyone really believe this (or really care) except the 10 people in Macrumors?

 

[jjcs]

Does anyone really believe this (or really care) except the 10 people in Macrumors?

Out of sight, out of mind.

 

[I7guy]

Out of sight, out of mind.

Or, and this is most likely, people have their own definition of “hypocrisy.”

 

[jjcs]

Or, and this is most likely, people have their own definition of “hypocrisy.”

"Most likely"? I presume you think your definition is the majority one.