The problem is that a lot of people- either those that don't understand how totalitarian socialists (dys)function or those that are totalitarian socialists themselves- underestimated what the heck this represented. Namely: a combination of the actual, relatively mild Coronavirus illnesses and deaths, typical government overreach, the specifically totalitarian need to black out the news and prevent Bad Think complaining about the government's handling of things, and the Party's desire to keep the economy running at almost any cost, even if Wuhan died off.

So even those who were paying attention probably misread what had happened.

And most people at this time weren't paying attention, partially because of initial obscurity and primarily because of what i'm going to talk about next.

Actually, anon, it's ever more apparent that you are the one who has not been paying attention.

China had no desire to keep the economy running. The who reason this is happening now is:

1. China subsidizes its industry's inputs, then makes the subsidies back with dumping and crushing int'l competition

2. Trump put tariffs on Chinese goods.

3. China must increase the subsidies to maintain the same price on the shelves. Many of the subsidies, notably oil, can only be bought with USD or other foreign currency reserves.

4. Phase 1 is fatal to China. The levels of tariffs, combined with the obligation to buy American, completely defeats China's "miraculous" growth. China has been hemorrhaging foreign cash, meanwhile hoping Mueller, then impeachment, would remove Trump from office before they run out.

5. Right after signing phase 1 with obvious reluctance, we get the Wuhan flu.

The economic collapse in China resulting from the Wuhan flu could not but have happened. If this year's flu season had not been weaponized with propaganda, China's economy would still have collapsed and they would still have had to turn away oil and natural gas and other freighters under force majeure.

You're giving a blinkered, sclerotic socialist dictatorship way too much credit.

Oh, you think the Chinese run China instead of just following instructions from their banker overlords. Good grief.

They acted in a suspicious manner because they're a totalitarian, corrupt, and not terribly competent dictatorship that figured it's better to look suspicious and tyrannical than it is to look incompetent and impotent.

Better? In what sense? Lol. "They were concerned about optics!" What idiocy.

Which is how you get things like this. Not from 21 million people with phones dying from COVID, but from a few people dying and even more talking, so the CCP figures it needs to shut them up.

This is also why it persecutes people for "Rumor Mongering", as the Voltaire's Ghost and Laowhy videos showed.

As for why it kept sending travellers from Wuhan to everywhere except other places in the PRC, that it desiring to keep the gears of its foreign businesses going, because it knows a degree of economic success (such as it is) is both necessary to avoid revolution and build on sand. So they wanted to avoid having a large scale disruption of it by cutting Wuhan trade, but they wanted to prevent it from spreading to elsewhere in China too.

(Of course, the dumb bastards being who they are, they underestimated how much it had already spread within the PRC).

All of this ignores the fact that China's economy was bound to fail right around the time the Wuhan flu arose. What luck for the Communist Party that random Chinese people suddenly started talking up this year's flu just in time, sparking a worldwide panic!

The panic was the goal from the outset.

In spite of it being easily confirmable, and making more SENSE for a totalitarian regime that is both obsessed with saving face to its own people and the world

They're not obsessed with saving face for their own people. They 100% control the narrative in that country. The Chinese people are just cattle to them. So long as they're punching their clocks and not revolting, the CCP doesn't give a shit what the Chinese people think of them.

and which has spent billions in propaganda trying to put the best face of "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" to the world

The billions in propaganda were spent in anticipation of a compliant US president like Hillary being in office at exactly the right moment (now).

Now that that plan has been foiled, they're going straight for their goals without any pretence. All of 'em, all at once! Under cover of a fake panic they created.

They've been doing that for Decades. Indeed, they wouldn't have been able to punt stuff like "Hug Chinese Day" in Italy if it weren't for how they've been advancing it.

What the fuck, you pretend you read the news, but you're unaware that China is moving at 10x speed in China, the Himalayas, and the South Pacific right now?

More circular BS logic.

WuFlu not being Black Death dangerous doesn't mean it's not dangerous.

And even MORE important for the CCP, it not being very dangerous in terms of deaths doesn't mean it's NOT dangerous in terms of economic damage and social unrest.

Explain Japan's numbers.

USA total pop: 328 million COVID-19 deaths: 100,000 [lockdown]

Japan total pop: 126 million [condensed (island)] COVID-19 deaths: 850 [no lockdown]

The wuhan flu isn't dangerous. It's just another flu season.

Translation: you're not understanding why the CCP lied, or how. So you're just assuming they lied that the virus was dangerous (again, in spite of the basic timeline contradicting it).

This retardation again. It's not dangerous because nowhere in the world has it presented as dangerous. If it had, places like the US wouldn't have to count gunshot wounds as Wuhan flu deaths.

See Japan's numbers again. Then marvel at your own idiocy: you fell for Chinese propaganda, it's just this year's flu season.

And I also-also know how Chinese whistleblowers have been talking about how the Party has been sending funeral urns and incinerators into the city on the down low.

There were no more funeral urns than normal. Why would there be? The wuhan flu isn't dangerous, it's just a flu season.

So unfortunately you've overthought the basics of why the CCP lied. You thought this was part of some 5 Dimensional Chess game in which Xi and the Commies sought to simultaneously spook the rest of the world into economically devastating itself (which happened) while oddly also insisting everything was fine.

It is actually you who still hasn't thought it through. Let's walk through it. If you respond to one thing, make it this.

1. China notices this year's flu season starting in China.

2. For some reason, Chinese doctors report on social media that this year's flu season is more dangerous than other flu seasons. Why would they do this though? There is no evidence to suggest the Wuhan flu is any more dangerous than any other flu season? Why did these whistleblowers even exist?

3. China censors these whistleblowers, because they don't want a panic over this year's flu season.

4. Then China builds a fake hospital, locks down Wuhan, and kneecaps their economy. Why would they do this right after censoring whistleblowers for causing a panic? It is sure to cause a panic, which it did.

5. Then ultimately, based on data from all over the world, it turns out there was never any reason to panic because it's just this year's flu season. So then why were there whistleblowers at all? Why did China build a fake hospital? Why did they kneecap their economy at this critical juncture?

If you just think for a minute, you'd recognize that everything China did was intended to cause the panic we're seeing now.

Your idea that they publicly overreacted to a harmless virus in an attempt to avoid a worldwide panic when the worldwide panic serves their interest makes no fucking sense.

In reality it was mostly due to a universal drive for politicians. To look Good. To be seen as decisive leaders. To be seen as "Doing Something Good." And to say "Commie China Number 1!"

Yeah, they really had to get their numbers up for the next election. KEK!!!!!!

See the pattern? The CPC doesn't like stuff that makes it look bad, no matter how true that is. And if there's one thing the CCP has ALWAYS tried to say during this crisis, it's "Commie Party Good."

But there was nothing to make them look bad in the first place, since it's just a flu. So why would they even react at all?

Fucking nonsense.

You're assuming that Wuhan COVID isn't another threat, even a minor one, co-existing with normal Flu and other nasty stuff.

No, I'm not assuming. If there were concurrent biological threats, we'd see additional deaths. We're not. Ergo, it's just this year's flu season.

I'd like to see the data for that. Especially if you're going to bitch to me about not having statistics or data.

https://wearethene.ws/notable/108025

Wonder why they'd have to massage the numbers if there was an elevated risk of death from the Wuhan flu like all the Chinese propaganda you fell for says?

Yes, Yes I do [think China's leadership is dumb]

Because Socialism is not a system for the masses, it's a system for the Central Planners.

Yeah, so those leaders (i.e., central planners) are pretty smart to have attained a system that works so well for them.

Not dumb.

And while even the Chinese Communists weren't capable of completely ignoring how their own system sucks and diluted bits of it, they're still wedded to its core aspects. Which means pervasive lying that Obama could only dream of.

Yeah, like lying a regular flu season into a global pandemic.

Why are you assuming that a bunch of people whose Top. People. couldn't handle a moderately infectious and not very lethal Bat Virus properly in a Specially Constructed Bio Lab

Lol, there's no bat virus. It's just this year's flu season. Good grief, do you just want to believe Chinese propaganda? Why are you so gullible?

have managed to beat the Socialist Calculation Problem and other problems?

I haven't assumed such because they haven't managed to beat this problem. The solution was trillion dollar trade deficits with the Western world. Which solution is totally fucked by tariffs. Which is why we now have Chinese propaganda inciting a worldwide panic over this year's flu season.

That doesn't mean they're COMPLETE idiots, but they are institutionally shackled to a certain level of stupidity. To do otherwise would mean reform, and Xi and most others don't want that.

The CCP brass are not stupid, at all. Underestimate them (and their bankist masters) at your peril.

Which were crushed with typical communist Brutality. Because even totalitarian regimes have grape vines and underground dissident writing.

But why were there leaks from China about this year's flu season at all? What occasion would the leakers have to leak anything? Flu seasons happen every year.

No, it wasn't. The leaks came from grassroots leaks from both inside China and especially its neighbors.

The "Entire Panic" leaked out only slowly via Chinese nationals and neighboring countries. Usually acting in the face of denial by useful idiots like WHO and persecution by the CCP.

Yeah, those grassroots leakers spread the word about this year's flu season. Thank goodness for them, or else we wouldn't have known it was coming! Ha ha ha!!

Well, this one was murdered AFTER the Wuhan Flu began, after being ritually humiliated and imprisoned for trying to spread warning that containment breach was a thing.

Containment breach... of what? Ha ha ha!!!