Okay so, pretty much 90% of the world is in lockdown. China, the main source of the virus, isn't on lockdown. How did China manage to withstand the virus out of nowhere, while it was a goddamn plaguefuck of a place for ~3 to 4 months?
China is on partial lockdown. Multiple cities and counties are completely shut down. Theaters are shut down nationwide. I also assume the official numbers are scrubbed and the ongoing situation is worse than presented, for the sake of economic optimism and saving CCP face.
Where quarantines aren't in place, it could probably be described as a partial or piecemeal reopening, and still quite totalitarian from a western point of view:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/life-after-covid-the-view-from-beijing.html
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3080745/coronavirus-chinas-slow-economic-reboot-continues-power-surge
Also, countries are severely mad at China, for lying about the virus. Apparently, there is new evidence in light stating the virus originated from the Wuhan Lab, and then it spread through their wet markets, whose existence is being denied by china. China claims there is no such thing as a wet market, while there is a shitload of evidence proving otherwise. To add to this, the US government has officially sued China for the spread of the virus, and for lying about all crucial information about the virus.
Conspiracy theorists are pushing the lab origin theory but it doesn't look very convincing: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/23/841729646/virus-researchers-cast-doubt-on-theory-of-coronavirus-lab-accident
It wasn't the federal government who sued China, it was the state of Missouri. That lawsuit isn't going anywhere.
It's a waste of time directing anger at China in my opinion. I blame the Chinese for COVID-19 as much as I blame England for mad cow disease.
Evidence now shows the corona virus was already circulating inside the US in early January, when China had only just isolated the SARS-CoV-2 genome. This was going to spread out of control no matter what. It moved more quickly and with more stealth than modern science has seen before. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/23/health/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html
Next, I am still shocked on why some countries/states are easing out on the lockdown while the number of cases has been on the rise. The state of Texas is apparently removing their lockdown effective next week. Why, WHY, the number of cases will only rise and become much worse, just like in 1918. I understand that people need to work for an economy to survive, but thus far the precautionary measures taken have been outright awful.
The issue has been politicized. Red states say the lockdowns go too far and are preaching fiscal conservatism, and Trump has made things worse by egging them on. https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-liberate-tweet-incites-insurrection-flouting-federal-law-1498791
And my oh my, coming out of this pandemic, I don't even know where to begin with. From the looks of it, a lot of countries are gonna shit on chinese markets and ask them to go fuck themselves. This could be a chance for something different to happen, as in inflated countries like Zimbabwe, Venezuela could come out on top as competitors for chinese markets, given enough capital.
There is strong anti-Chinese sentiment right now but we'll see if it sustains. China still offers cheap labor and raw material costs, weak unionization, and little business or environmental regulations. What it also offers above and beyond countries like that is political stability. Even without sanctions, I still wouldn't be caught dead putting capital investments into Venezuela.
We will see some level of exodus from China, and also some on-shoring (like US businesses moving their Chinese factories back to the US) but it's hard to know how much. I think items related to national security and health care are more likely to be affected than wholesale consumer goods.