Why did China lie?

[HecklerNKoch]

Others have described it better above.



Their culture hasn't adapted with the times.


In their culture exists a concept of shame that is not well understood by the West.


It is akin to saving face, not being able to cope with embarrassment, fearing more about what others think of them than about doing the right thing. And then justifying the act of lying with self-preservation for the greater good.

[MeatyMac]

To save face.

THIS 100%. Research the Chinese concept of "saving face." It explains a lot of their government's utterly childish behavior.

Yep, and they're evil...

Have you ever tried to get a Chinese national to admit they made a mistake or are wrong about something? Saving Face is so strong in their culture many of them cannot admit their faults or become very irrationally emotional when forced to recognize and admit their mistake.

[deckhandmike]

Save face is leftist speak for blatantly lie and misdirect blame.

[viet4lifeOC]

Save face is leftist speak for blatantly lie and misdirect blame.

Exactly...it's too simple of a reason.

Are there no other nation that practices "saving face?" Most, if not all of Asia? Honor killing in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan? People in the Middle East don't practice saving face? In the 1980s....Japanese business practice of saving face was the rage in American corporate management.

It's better to categorize societies as individualistic or collectivist. Saving face is more important in collectivist societies because harmony and relationships are held as virtues. But...even this is too simple.

Again, as someone posted...lower level leaders lied to upper communist party members for fear of the consequences. Once the Communist party found out...they clamped down hard. Dragging people off to quarantine, nailing boards to lock people in their homes, police beating non compliant citizen IS NOT A GOOD LOOK if saving face was important.

I just finished reading Red Famine by Anne Applebaum. Stalin's initiated the Holodomor program against Ukraine. It's aim was to starve to death millions of Ukrainian peasants as punishment for their nationalism. Stalin's policy isn't that much different from Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Castro, Jong Un, etc. Divide people and raise their class consciousness, cause distrust by rewarding stool pigeons, sprinkle fear with secret police, remove enemy of the people/state with execution, imprisonment, and/or labor/reeducation camps. Cult of personality, loyalty to the party. It's a blue print.

It isn't Chinese culture. It's Communism need to CONTROL. During China's cultural revolution that lasted 10 years...it was Mao, the little red book, and young Red guards that went around destroying old Chinese ideas/past. Buddhism, Confucianism, religious artifacts, art, just about anything connected to the past was attacked and destroyed. Only thing allowed was the cult of personality of Mao and loyalty to the communist party.

World opinion and saving face doesn't seem to greatly affect China's policy in Tibet, it's treatment of Uighur minority, it's control of Hong Kong, it's foreign policy to isolate Taiwan, etc.

China didn't lose sleep when the world condemn its actions in Tiamennm square.

This is what totalitarian communist countries do- control it's people through force and propaganda.

[CaliforniaCowboy]

Why did the scorpion sting the frog?

[August]

Why did the scorpion sting the frog?

Because China *** hole

[brey6290]

I think there's so many viruses in china that kill people that they had no idea covid was going to be such a big deal. I think they are just incompetent and are trying to hide the fact they are a third world country and cant even teach people to wash their hands

[swilson]

Why did the scorpion sting the frog?

Exactly what I came here to say.

[ronlglock]

From the WSJ:

TL;DR: China has leveraged its economic and political muscle to lie about the virus and even deny its origin out of national pride. But some Western progressives do the work for them because of their fear the truth could lead to stigma. Elite humanities and social science journals have already bent to elaborate political conventions, leading to a loss of trust from the general public.

And now for the rest of the story:
Nature magazine this week published a remarkable editorial in which it lambasted those “who had erroneously been associating the virus with Wuhan and China.” The virus originated in Wuhan, China, likely in November. The editors admitted they had in the past identified the virus with Wuhan, and added, “That we did so was an error on our part, for which we take responsibility and apologize.”

The journal chastises President Trump, of course, but also politicians in the United Kingdom for “saying that China bears responsibility.” The Chinese government’s suppression of information about the virus and manipulation of the World Health Organization are well-documented. One reason sober scientific judgment is sometimes challenged by politicians is that institutions like Nature thrust themselves into political debates where they have no special authority.

Political pressure has distorted scientific judgment since early in the crisis. As the Stanford biologist Michael Lin notes, even the name “Covid-19,” given in part to distract from the virus’ origin in Wuhan, created confusion about the nature of the disease. “Given the similarity in clinical presentation, SARS2 would have been an accurate name” he wrote, but the World Health Organization “wants to avoid any reference to SARS for political reasons.” SARS also originated in China in the early 2000s.

That the virus originated in China is important to understanding its qualities. If it jumped to humans from bats or pangolins, as widely thought, which species are present in Wuhan or sold at its wet markets? And what does the rate of spread in Wuhan tell us about how fast it would spread in cities with different densities and climates?

These questions ought to be explored in scholarship published in Nature, but they may become sensitive or taboo if the journal’s official position is that associating “a virus and the disease it causes with a specific place is irresponsible and needs to stop.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/politicizing-coronavirus-science-11586556596

[Redeyedrider]

Don't truss China.... China ***hoe!

[tigerpan]

The communist part always lies about number. Less number equals less fears they need keep Chinese people under control.

[Phalanx20mm]

Because the Left is evil and lies about everything for their personal gain.

China has always made toxic products domestic and export, as soon as Americans stop buying anything made in China the solution starts.

[TheGood]

Mutually assured economic destruction. They didn't want to go down a peg without taking us with them.

[five.five-six]

Because they are commies.

[KatMan53]

Now, if you were a totalitarian government and you developed a dangerous virus in one of your labs, and you made a mistake and one of your techs got infected, wandered into Wuhan city and lit the fuse on a global bomb...

Wouldn't you lie, too?