I spent some time a while back with a long time friend still living in China. This is a foreigner who between the Mainland and a little time in HK has lived there about 15 years. They speak excellent Mandarin and Cantonese. They know how things work and told me a great story 1/n
Friend of theirs is walking home from work one night and sees a fight breaking out. If you've lived in China for any period of time, you've probably witnessed this at some point. It's not super rare. This person calls the emergency number to report this fight breaking out 2/n
As they are talking to the dispatcher, telling them location what they see, and related details, a siren is heard at a far end of the street. The person says I think the police are here thanks for sending help. Dispatcher says great. This person goes home and 3/n
starts making dinner. Shortly thereafter, someone from the police department starts calling them asking them about why they are making false reports. Becoming very belligerent and dropping details about what they know about this person. This person is just like, I saw a fight 4/n
and reported it. That's it. This police person calls so much this other person turns off their phone. They call the next day. They turn off their phone again. Eventually they stop calling. So you ask, why would the police be so belligerent about one call reporting a fight? 5/n
Two equally plausible theories. 1) The police were the ones (off duty, running their scams, working for mobsters etc etc) doing the A$$ kicking. 2) Like the 17 people in poverty, they had to hit their numbers and this person was messing up their targets. So why do I 6/n
this story now? Anytime there is a story like coronavirus in China, screw the clear obvious technical reason/example/path and think about the incompetent, corrupt, cheaters logic and it will make a lot more sense. This is why Chinese are joking that no one in Wuhan is 7/n
Getting the virus but only people leaving the city and travelling are getting it. That tells you everything you need to know about what Chinese think of the system. My friend asked their friend what did you learn? I loved their answer: never report anything to the officials.
