andyrebell

Interesting article here wouldn't you say? Perhaps china is behind this after all. An attempt to strengthen the government control over the people or maybe even cull the ageing population.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...aboratory.html

robin1234

It is an interesting article. It seems to be a straightforward report on a recently published scholarly article. Neither the scholarly article, or the Daily Mail report, even remotely supports your speculation, however.

Interesting that you would think China would want to “cull the aging population.” It almost makes the Chinese government sound alien, subhuman maybe.

spouse of scouse

There's plenty of information around from reputable sources, such as Snopes quoting the WHO, that refutes these absurd stories. If only people would stop believing and sharing them.

robin1234

In this case, though, it is important to note that the Daily Mail story seems accurate and legitimate. anyrebell’s remarks seem to be wholly unrelated to the DM article he quotes.

dc koop

The fact however is that China currently has a very large aging population and a smaller younger population thanks due to the falling birth rate. the inequity of females vs males and this young generation will have to support this very large aging population for years to come and it would be natural to assume that with better medical care and nutrition they wont be dying off so quickly and as earlier in life as before.

robin1234

Absolutely, I agree that that seems to be the case.

spouse of scouse

I was talking about the stories/rumours floating around about the virus being genetically engineered in a Chinese lab for all sorts of nefarious purposes, which is where I assume the poster got his 'information' from.

andyrebell

Keep in mind that government had in the past a 1 child policy which was enforced through forced abortion and even sterilization according to wiki. This policy was relaxed than overturned but it did prevent 400 million births so they say.

Pulaski

At the risk of fueling AndyRebell's paranoia, has anyone seen this web page (it's the US DoJ, so I am going to assume that this is a credible source, and is being taken seriously by the federal government), or one of the news reports based on it? The interesting bit starts at the first line of the firth paragraph (first paragraph under the "Dr Charles Lieber" sub-heading).

robin1234

It looks like Harvard dropped the ball, and Dr. Lieber appears to have consistently lied in terms of his role in the Chinese university and the remuneration he received. But bigger picture, I’m a bit dubious about the whole US project here. It’s OK for the US and US institutions to pick the brains of foreigners (remember the brain-drain?) But if the Chinese do it - shock horror! They’re stealing our intellectual property!

scrubbedexpat091

We had an issue last year and the government is still being largely secretive about it, a Chinese researcher last summer was abruptly removed from Canada only level 4 lab along with her Chinese students, all the government would really say is there was a policy breach. No criminal charges have been filed, but government is sharing so little its hard to really know the real reason.

She had been taking trips twice a year to China for up to 2 weeks going to Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, eventually Canada started to deny her approval for said trips, and took her work computer and replaced it, and then in July RCMP attended the lab and escorted her and her students out.

Something is up with this, but Canada isn't a transparent government generally so not much is known yet, and unless criminal charges are filed, we may never know the real reason.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...hina-1.5307424

Hiro11

Not even vaguely the same thing. Lieber had a $15MM grant from the US government. The grant required that Lieber disclose any sharing of the research with foreign governments or foreign entities. He was paid a ton of money by Chinese government proxies to share the research, did not disclose to the US government that he had shared and then lied to the Feds when questioned. This is extremely cut-and-dry.

Also, the "bigger picture" here is that the Chinese government has been a shakedown operation for the world's industrial secrets and intellectual property for decades. This isn't just a US problem and it's not political superstition. Talk to anyone who does any work with Chinese companies some time, me for example.

scrubbedexpat099

World is approaching coronavirus tipping point, experts say

78,000 cases confirmed, as Italy and Iran scramble to contain major outbreaks

Graun headline today.

scrubbedexpat091

I look at alibaba from time to time, and its amazing how many knock of products there are for the aquarium hobby, identical copies in some cases just a different name, almost wonder if the companies contracted by the name brand are in some cases simply producing a side product to sell under a different name and they always have the little disclaimer about how it arrives without packaging.

Guess its the risk these companies take when outsourcing to China, they know their product will be copied.

kimilseung

Its Amazon too.