re: Second City in China, Huanggang, is being put on lockdown

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The first issue with this is equating the Chinese government and its people to the US government and its people.

The Chinese government has the means and will to do something like this at a far earlier, and actually more crucial period of time (to slow infection) than the US does.

I wouldn't read into the fact they are taking these measures earlier than we can as some sign thousands have died already on its own. It's just what totalitarian states can do that we can't.

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I agree... hell, they operate concentration camps with a million people in them. However, a big part of the Asian psyche (and China's gov in particular) is outward appearances. I have to think that quarantining off 20 million people is pretty bad optics in the mind of the Chinese government, but letting loose a worldwide pandemic would be worse, so they're going with the quarantine option. I don't think they would resort to measures that would imply dysfunction within the government/social order unless the alternative option (disease spreading rapidly) would be worse.