China's actions reveal seriousness of coronavirus

The Washington Times ^ | Sunday, February 2, 2020 | Ethan Epstein

[E. Pluribus Unum]

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The Chinese government’s response to the coronavirus demonstrates the vast powers accorded to it under its authoritarian structure. Tens of millions of Chinese citizens — an astonishing number of people — in and around the central city of Wuhan are under physical quarantine, barred from leaving. Imagine attempting that in a democratic country. The deadly, pneumonia-like ailment that is spreading rapidly across the world emerged from Wuhan, apparently from a market where wild and domesticated animals are slaughtered on site.

After the physical quarantine came the information quarantine. Late last week, I received a message over WeChat, the Chinese chat app, from a friend in Beijing. He told me that China has blocked Virtual Private Networks, the unofficially tolerated apps that allow users to bypass the so-called Great Firewall, which blocks content that’s unfriendly to the government. And he wanted to know: What’s going on with coronavirus? How many cases are there? Think of the absurdity of the situation: A person in China asking me, some 6,000 miles away, what’s actually going on there.

How serious is the coronavirus? Well, let’s look at what the economists call the “revealed preference” — the actions people take regardless of what they say or perhaps even think. One must be wary of accepting the Chinese government’s statistics about the spread of the virus. Honesty is not its strong suit. But the Chinese government’s revealed preference — what it’s actually doing, rather than saying — suggests that coronavirus is very, very serious indeed.

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Haunggang has also been quarantined to their homes.

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