French scientists who built Wuhan lab warned of Leaks, & that China
might make Bioweapons
Newsletter published on May 26, 2020
(1) Larry Romanoff is right about Jewish influence, but blind about China
(2) China Lobby tries to emulate Jewish Lobby - The Ass (Donkey) and the
Lapdog (Aesop's Fables)
(3) Israel rejects Chinese bid to build Desalination Plant amid pressure
from the US
(4) French Intelligence warned of 'Catastrophic Leak' from Wuhan Lab
(5) French scientists who built Wuhan lab warned of Leaks, & that China
might make Bioweapons
(6) WHO hails 'goodwill ambassador' Peng Liyuan, but fails to mention
she's the wife of China's President
(7) Globalization in Roman Empire facilitated spread of Plagues which
helped bring it down
(8) China moves ahead with 5G: 550,000 base stations, 500 billion yuan
for ultra-high-voltage power
(1) Larry Romanoff is right about Jewish influence, but blind about China
From: E
Subject: Re: LINK FIXED - Discussion with Larry Romanoff on White
America, the Jewish Lobby and the China Lobby
He is right about Jewish influence, but blind about China. He lives in
China's New York City, so he has to be.
> A great many Americans "know" - because their narrative has told them -
> that China stole all their jobs, that China cheats on trade, that the
> Chinese have no "freedom" and, of course, that "all Chinese are
> brainwashed".
Isn't that all true? just because Trump says something, it doesn't
necessarily mean it's wrong.
I never cease to marvel how Sharon can see: Jews control America. and
they know it.
and even the most restrained criticism of Jews makes one an anti-semite.
the double standard is the poison that has destroyed the West. You live
a lie and the money schemers kill you, reduce you to babbling idiots.
> what about Russia? Russia and China are supposedly
> allies, yet China has been cloning Russian military technology and
> exporting its products in competition with Russia.
> That's why I say it's "a threat to friend and foe alike - just like
Israel."
Well said. Mao and Zhou Enlai stabbed soviet union in back. i hope Putin
isn't naive about China. i can see china using some crisis to take over
parts of the far east. Already thousands of Chinese live and work there.
(2) China Lobby tries to emulate Jewish Lobby - The Ass (Donkey) and the
Lapdog (Aesop's Fables)
Comparisons between the China Lobby and the Jewish Looby remind me of
this Aesop's Fable - Peter M.
The Ass and the Lapdog
Retold from Aesop by Rohini Chowdhury
lapdog and ass
Once a farmer owned an ass and a lapdog.
The ass worked hard all day, hauling heavy loads. But he was well looked
after, and had a warm, comfortable stable, with plenty of fresh hay to
eat and water to drink.
The lapdog stayed with his master all day, and lived in the house with
him. He did no work, but was made much of, and even allowed to sit on
the master’s lap.
The ass saw the lapdog leading a life of leisure, being petted by the
master, and being given choice tidbits of food from the master’s own
plate, and the ass grew jealous of the lapdog.
‘I wish the master would love me as much, and give me as much attention
as he does the lapdog,’ sighed the ass. ‘I work hard all day, much
harder than that lapdog who does nothing at all except wag his tail and
fawn on the master, and yet it seems the master cares more for the dog
than for me. Perhaps if I too behave like the dog, and wag my tail and
jump on the master, the master will start loving me as much as he does
the dog.’ The ass decided to wait for his chance.
One day, when he was left unattended while the farmer and all the
farmhands were at their midday meal, the ass broke his halter and ran
into the farmhouse kitchen. There the farmer sat at table. The ass
rushed up to him and began wagging his tail vigorously, and knocked off
all the china from the table. He then started jumping around and
frolicking like a little dog, and finally plonked himself down on the
farmer’s lap. The shocked farmer yelled for help. The farmhands came
running in and dragged the ass off to his stable, and gave him a beating
he did not forget the rest of his life.
It is best to be contented with one’s lot.
Copyright © Rohini Chowdhury 2002. All rights reserved.
There was once an Ass whose Master also owned a Lap Dog. This Dog was a
favorite and received many a pat and kind word from his Master, as well
as choice bits from his plate. Every day the Dog would run to meet the
Master, frisking playfully about and leaping up to lick his hands and face.
All this the Ass saw with much discontent. Though he was well fed, he
had much work to do; besides, the Master hardly ever took any notice of him.
Now the jealous Ass got it into his silly head that all he had to do to
win his Master’s favor was to act like the Dog. So one day he left his
stable and clattered eagerly into the house.
Finding his Master seated at the dinner table, he kicked up his heels
and, with a loud bray, pranced giddily around the table, upsetting it as
he did so. Then he planted his forefeet on his Master’s knees and rolled
out his tongue to lick the Master’s face, as he had seen the Dog do. But
his weight upset the chair, and Ass and man rolled over together in the
pile of broken dishes from the table.
The Master was much alarmed at the strange behavior of the Ass, and
calling for help, soon attracted the attention of the servants. When
they saw the danger the Master was in from the clumsy beast, they set
upon the Ass and drove him with kicks and blows back to the stable.
There they left him to mourn the foolishness that had brought him
nothing but a sound beating.
Aesop Fable – The Ass And The Lap-dog
A man had an Ass and a Maltese Lap-dog, a very great beauty.
The Ass was left in a stable, and had plenty of oats and hay to eat,
just as any other Ass would. The Lap-dog was a great favorite with his
master, and he frisked and jumped about him in a manner pleasant to see.
The Ass had much work to do, in grinding the corn-mill, and in carrying
wood from the forest or burdens from the farm. He often lamented his own
hard fate, and contrasted it with the luxury and idleness of the
Lap-dog, till at last one day he broke his halter, and galloped into his
master’s house, kicking up his heels without measure, and frisking and
fawning as well as he could. He next tried to jump about his master as
he had seen the Lap-dog do, but he broke the table and smashed all the
dishes upon it to atoms. He then attempted to lick his master, and
jumped upon his back. The servants hearing the strange hubbub, and
perceiving the danger of their master, quickly relieved him, and drove
out the Ass to his stable, with kicks, and clubs, and cuffs. The Ass,
beaten nearly to death, thus lamented: "I have brought it all on myself!
Why could I not have been contented to labor with my companions, and not
try to live by idleness?"
(3) Israel rejects Chinese bid to build Desalination Plant amid pressure
from the US
Israel rejects Chinese bid to build Sorek 2 amid pressure from the US
Three groups bid to build the private-public partnership (PPP), which
will be the world’s largest desalination plant when completed in 2023.
By LAHAV HARKOV, EYTAN HALON
MAY 26, 2020 12:49
Israel chose local company IDE technologies to construct the world's
largest desalination plant, the government announced on Tuesday, rather
than a Chinese company, thus preventing another undesirable showdown
with the Trump administration over Chinese participation in major
infrastructure projects.
Three groups bid to build Sorek 2, a private-public partnership (PPP)
which will be the world’s largest desalination plant when completed in
2023. Among them was Israeli Hutchison Company, an affiliate of the
Chinese Hutchison Company based in Hong Kong.
The US has asked its allies, including Israel, in recent weeks to sever
ties with China – Israel’s third-largest trading partner - in areas with
security risks, a US official with knowledge of talks on the matter said
last week.
The Trump administration specifically flagged Hutchison's possible
involvement in the construction of the desalination plant, which will be
in Kibbutz Palmachim and cost more than NIS 5 billion. In addition to
being an important infrastructure project for Israel, the plant is near
the Sorek Nuclear Center and the Palmachim airbase.
The US concern about Chinese companies’ involvement in major
infrastructure projects in Israel in recent years, is due partly to the
ability of Chinese operatives to gather intelligence while working on
them, as well as the massive economic, social and environmental losses,
and even casualties, that could be inflicted if that infrastructure is
damaged.
The official statement from the Finance Ministry, Energy Ministry and
Water Resources Ministry does not mention Hutchison or China and simply
states that Kadima-headquartered IDE Technologies, which partnered with
Bank Leumi, submitted the winning PPP bid, promising desalinated water
at the cost of approximately NIS 1.45 per cubic meter (cu.m.) - some 65
agorot cheaper than all desalination solutions today.
The reduced cost is expected to save households a total of NIS 3.3
billion during the lifetime of the plant, which is expected to produce
200 million cubic meters of potable water per year, increasing the
country’s annual desalinated water production by 35% to 785 million
cu.m. – approximately 85% of Israel’s household and municipal water needs.
IDE Technologies, a subsidiary of Alpha Water Partnership, was formerly
the sole owner of the Sorek A facility, but sold its shares in February
2019 to bid for the latest desalination project. In mid-2019, a
committee headed by Energy Ministry director-general Udi Adiri
discovered "systematic and continuous deviations" in the concentration
of chloride in water produced by the facility over a period of more than
two years.
"About two years ago, I passed a revolutionary government program to
deal with future periods of drought, during which I decided to double
desalination targets by 2030," said Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz.
"The desalination plant being initiated today, which will be the largest
of its kind worldwide, is the result of the implementation of this
program, and together with the desalination facility in the Western
Galilee that has already in progress, a significant increase in the
scope of development and additional steps, the state of the Israeli
water market and its readiness for the future are excellent."
(4) French Intelligence warned of 'Catastrophic Leak' from Wuhan Lab
by Tyler Durden
Tue, 05/26/2020 - 11:10
Eleven years before the joint construction of the Wuhan Institute of
Virology, French intelligence services warned Paris that China's
reputation for poor bio-security could lead to a 'catastrophic leak,'
according to the Daily Mail.
In 2004, the EU's chief brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier, ignored
those warnings - signing off on the lab's construction when he was the
French foreign minister.
According to the report, French intel also warned that Paris could lose
control of the facility, and that Beijing could even use it to make
biowarfare weapons. And in 2015, as the laboratory prepared to open,
those concerns were realized after the French architects of the project
said the CCP had shut them out. In fact, 50 French scientists were
supposed to help the Chinese run the laboratory properly, but never
ended up going.
The Mail discovered Barnier's involvement in the Wuhan Institute of
Virology during an in-depth investigation into French connections to the
lab - where many believe the coronavirus escaped from, as the WIV housed
a group of scientists who received international condemnation for
creating chimeric strains that could infect humans. Under the 'escaped'
scenario, an infected WIV employee unknowingly brought it into the Wuhan
wet market, exposing what would become roughly half of the first known
cluster of cases.
Biologists who carried out a landmark study say they were ‘surprised’ to
find the virus was ‘already pre-adapted to human transmission’.
Jacques Chirac, the French president at the time of the deal, pushed for
the Wuhan institute to be set up after the 2003 SARS outbreak, which
affected 26 countries and resulted in more than 8,000 cases and 774
deaths. Mr Chirac, along with his pro-Beijing prime minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin, promised French funding and expertise in return for a share of
the intellectual copyright on the lab’s discoveries. -Daily Mail
France's Chirac government saw the deal to construct the WIV as a way to
strengthen trade with China, despite warnings from its own intelligence,
the French equivalent to MI6, which repeatedly raised concerns over lack
of international control and 'transparency' issues.
"What you have to understand is that a P4 [high-level bio-security]
laboratory is like a nuclear reprocessing plant. It’s a bacteriological
atomic bomb," said one source, adding: "The viruses that are tested are
extremely dangerous – diving suits, decontamination airlocks etc must be
followed to the letter."
Alain Merieux, the French billionaire who was instrumental in setting up
the Wuhan laboratory in partnership with his Institut Merieux in Lyons,
abandoned the project in 2015, saying: ‘I am giving up the
co-chairmanship of [the] P4 [laboratory], a Chinese tool. It belongs to
them, even if it was developed with technical assistance from France.’
According to Le Figaro, a diplomat with a close knowledge of the deal
added: ‘We knew the risks involved and thought that the Chinese would
control everything and quickly eject us from the project.
‘We believed that providing this cutting-edge technology to a country
with an endless power agenda would risk exposing France in return.’
-Daily Mail
And in 2015, concerns were validated after China implemented their new
policy of 'dual use' technologies, which allows for the military use of
civilian technology.
"The aim was to develop vaccines following the SARS crisis between 2002
and 2004," said the Mail's source. "There was much co-operation on a
range of issues between France and China at the time, and Michel Barnier
was implementing government policy."
"The issue of bio-security was certainly a cause for concern within
agencies including the DGSE," the source added.
Meanwhile, the WIV's Shi Zhengli - known as "bat woman" for her
controversial experiments creating bat coronaviruses that can infect
humans - and who swore 'on her life' that the COVID-19 isn't from her
lab, said in a recent interview on Chinese state television that viruses
being discovered now are "just the tip of the iceberg."
"If we want to prevent human beings from suffering from the next
infectious disease outbreak, we must go in advance to learn of these
unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and give early
warnings," Shi told CGTN, adding "If we don’t study them there will
possibly be another outbreak."
Will be, or won't be another outbreak?
(5) French scientists who built Wuhan lab warned of Leaks, & that China
might make Bioweapons
French scientists also built Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor; then it
was secretly used to make nuclear weapons - Peter M.
Wuhan virus lab was signed off by EU Brexit chief Michel Barnier in 2004
- despite French intelligence warnings that China's poor bio-security
reputation could lead to a catastrophic leak
The EU's chief Brexit negotiator signed off on construction of the P4
laboratory French intelligence services warned poor Chinese security
could lead to a leak Jacques Chirac, French president at the time,
pushed the Wuhan lab project
50 French scientists were meant to go to Wuhan but were never sent to
the lab
By GLEN OWEN FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 07:09 AEST, 24 May 2020 | UPDATED: 10:39 AEST, 24 May 2020
The construction of the Chinese laboratory at the centre of mounting
suspicion over the source of the Covid-19 pandemic was signed off by the
EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier – despite warnings by French
intelligence services.
Mr Barnier – currently embroiled in acrimonious negotiations with the UK
over a post-Brexit trade deal – was the French foreign minister when he
gave the go-ahead for work to start on the Wuhan Institute of Virology
in 2004, under a joint deal with the Chinese.
The move came despite strong opposition from French diplomatic and
security advisers, who argued that the Chinese reputation for poor
bio-security could lead to a catastrophic leak.
They also warned that Paris could lose control of the project, and even
suggested that Beijing could harness the technology to make biowarfare
weapons.
Eleven years later, as the laboratory prepared to open, the French
architects of the project complained that they had, as feared, been
ousted by the Chinese communist government.
Mr Barnier’s role in helping to establish the Wuhan institute can be
revealed as part of a Mail on Sunday investigation into French
connections to the laboratory.
The site was carrying out research on coronaviruses when the outbreak
started in the city last November.
A growing number of scientific and security experts are now questioning
the Chinese government’s insistence that the virus originated in a
wildlife market in Wuhan, with Beijing’s refusal to allow an
international investigation only adding to the growing suspicions.
Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that experts now believe the
coronavirus was taken into the market by someone already carrying the
disease.
Biologists who carried out a landmark study say they were ‘surprised’ to
find the virus was ‘already pre-adapted to human transmission’.
Jacques Chirac, the French president at the time of the deal, pushed for
the Wuhan institute to be set up after the 2003 SARS outbreak, which
affected 26 countries and resulted in more than 8,000 cases and 774
deaths. Mr Chirac, along with his pro-Beijing prime minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin, promised French funding and expertise in return for a share of
the intellectual copyright on the lab’s discoveries.
They argued that a French-Chinese collaboration could develop effective
– and lucrative – vaccines to prevent a repeat of a deadly virus pandemic.
France is a global leader in virus research, but the Chirac government
also saw the deal as a way to forge stronger trade links with China than
its Western rivals.
According to a report in France’s Le Figaro newspaper, institutions such
as the General Directorate for External Security, the French equivalent
of MI6, expressed repeated concern at the lack of international control
over Chinese laboratories and issues with ‘transparency’.
A source told the newspaper: ‘What you have to understand is that a P4
[high-level bio-security] laboratory is like a nuclear reprocessing
plant. It’s a bacteriological atomic bomb.
‘The viruses that are tested are extremely dangerous – diving suits,
decontamination airlocks etc must be followed to the letter.’
As part of the deal, up to 50 French scientists were expected to travel
to Wuhan to help the Chinese run the laboratory properly – but they
never went.
Alain Merieux, the French billionaire who was instrumental in setting up
the Wuhan laboratory in partnership with his Institut Merieux in Lyons,
abandoned the project in 2015, saying: ‘I am giving up the
co-chairmanship of [the] P4 [laboratory], a Chinese tool. It belongs to
them, even if it was developed with technical assistance from France.’
According to Le Figaro, a diplomat with a close knowledge of the deal
added: ‘We knew the risks involved and thought that the Chinese would
control everything and quickly eject us from the project.
‘We believed that providing this cutting-edge technology to a country
with an endless power agenda would risk exposing France in return.’
Their fears were compounded in 2015 when China implemented a new policy
of ‘dual use’ technologies, which allows their armed forces to use any
civilian technology for military purposes.
The Wuhan institute became operational in January 2018, and coincided
with a visit to Beijing by current French president Emmanuel Macron and
Mr Raffarin, who was made a ‘special envoy to China’.
Last night, a Foreign Ministry source in Paris confirmed that Mr Barnier
had helped set up the Wuhan institute when he was foreign minister as
‘the hand that signed the paper’.
Mr Barnier, a Gaullist conservative, served as foreign minister for just
over a year, from April 2004 to June 2005.
The source said: ‘The aim was to develop vaccines following the SARS
crisis between 2002 and 2004.
‘There was much co-operation on a range of issues between France and
China at the time, and Michel Barnier was implementing government policy.’
The source added that opposition to the move had come from a number of
people, including senior figures within the French security services.
‘The issue of bio-security was certainly a cause for concern within
agencies including the DGSE,’ said the source.
A security services source involved in the case at the time said: ‘The
Chinese laboratories were not inspiring a great deal of trust, but the
government had its own reasons for progressing with this.’
(6) WHO hails 'goodwill ambassador' Peng Liyuan, but fails to mention
she's the wife of China's President
World Health Organisation hails 'goodwill ambassador' Peng Liyuan on its
website as a singing star... but fails to mention she's the wife of
China's President, amid concerns over WHO'S handling of the coronavirus
pandemic
By Mail on Sunday reporter
PUBLISHED: 07:09 AEST, 24 May 2020 | UPDATED: 10:39 AEST, 24 May 2020
Peng Liyuan is listed on the World Health Organisation’s website
alongside former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Liverpool
goalkeeper Alisson Becker as one of nine ‘goodwill ambassadors’.
When she was appointed, the then-head of the WHO hailed the Chinese folk
singer’s ‘world famous voice and her compassionate heart’, saying she
was ‘a big bright star with a huge and respectful audience of admirers’.
There was, however, no mention of the other reason why Peng is so well
known – she is the wife of Xi Jinping, President of China and leader of
its Communist Party.
Peng, who holds the rank of major-general in the army, sang in uniform
for soldiers after they crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen
Square – although state censors have sought to scrub these pictures from
the internet.
The revelation that China’s first lady has been serving in such a
prominent role will fuel pressure on the WHO, which has been criticised
during the pandemic – sparked by concerns over its current boss’s close
relationship with Beijing.
‘The definition of goodwill seems to be stretched,’ said Tory MP Tom
Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. ‘The WHO should
choose people who champion the rights of those they’re there to serve,
not those whose record leaves their commitment in doubt.’
Peng, who joined the People’s Liberation Army in 1980, made her name on
China’s state-run television as a singer of syrupy songs praising the
Communist Party and her country’s rise to power.
She married Xi in 1987, when he was the divorced deputy mayor of the
city of Xiamen. She was appointed by Margaret Chan, China’s first head
of a United Nations body, who has since joined a key Communist Party
policy body. Peng was reappointed to the WHO by Chan’s successor Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who also tried to hand one of the posts to
Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe before outrage forced a retreat.
Peng has attended influential summits and has joined her husband at key
UN meetings. She has also met Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist
who bailed out the WHO after its funding was cut by the US in fury over
its pro-China stance. Donald Trump has called the WHO a ‘pipe organ’ for
Beijing’s interests.
(7) Globalization in Roman Empire facilitated spread of Plagues which
helped bring it down
From: JUDY schuchmann <judyschuchmann1@gmail.com>
How disease and climate change helped the fall of the Roman Empire
The highly urbanised, highly interconnected Roman empire was a boon to
its microbial inhabitants.
by Kyle Harper
May 25, 2020
At some time or another, every historian of Rome has been asked to say
where we are, today, on Rome’s cycle of decline. Historians might squirm
at such attempts to use the past but, even if history does not repeat
itself, nor come packaged into moral lessons, it can deepen our sense of
what it means to be human and how fragile our societies are.
In the middle of the second century, the Romans controlled a huge,
geographically diverse part of the globe, from northern Britain to the
edges of the Sahara, from the Atlantic to Mesopotamia. The generally
prosperous population peaked at 75 million. Eventually, all free
inhabitants of the empire came to enjoy the rights of Roman citizenship.
Little wonder that the 18th-century English historian Edward Gibbon
judged this age the ‘most happy’ in the history of our species – yet
today we are more likely to see the advance of Roman civilisation as
unwittingly planting the seeds of its own demise.
Five centuries later, the Roman empire was a small Byzantine rump-state
controlled from Constantinople, its near-eastern provinces lost to
Islamic invasions, its western lands covered by a patchwork of Germanic
kingdoms. Trade receded, cities shrank, and technological advance
halted. Despite the cultural vitality and spiritual legacy of these
centuries, this period was marked by a declining population, political
fragmentation, and lower levels of material complexity. When the
historian Ian Morris at Stanford University created a universal
social-development index, the fall of Rome emerged as the greatest
setback in the history of human civilisation.
Explanations for a phenomenon of this magnitude abound: in 1984, the
German classicist Alexander Demandt catalogued more than 200 hypotheses.
Most scholars have looked to the internal political dynamics of the
imperial system or the shifting geopolitical context of an empire whose
neighbours gradually caught up in the sophistication of their military
and political technologies. But new evidence has started to unveil the
crucial role played by changes in the natural environment. The paradoxes
of social development, and the inherent unpredictability of nature,
worked in concert to bring about Rome’s demise.
Climate change did not begin with the exhaust fumes of
industrialisation, but has been a permanent feature of human existence.
Orbital mechanics (small variations in the tilt, spin and eccentricity
of the Earth’s orbit) and solar cycles alter the amount and distribution
of energy received from the Sun. And volcanic eruptions spew reflective
sulphates into the atmosphere, sometimes with long-reaching effects.
Modern, anthropogenic climate change is so perilous because it is
happening quickly and in conjunction with so many other irreversible
changes in the Earth’s biosphere. But climate change per se is nothing new.
How climate change affected Rome
The need to understand the natural context of modern climate change has
been an unmitigated boon for historians. Earth scientists have scoured
the planet for paleoclimate proxies, natural archives of the past
environment. The effort to put climate change in the foreground of Roman
history is motivated both by troves of new data and a heightened
sensitivity to the importance of the physical environment. It turns out
that climate had a major role in the rise and fall of Roman
civilisation. The empire-builders benefitted from impeccable timing: the
characteristic warm, wet and stable weather was conducive to economic
productivity in an agrarian society. The benefits of economic growth
supported the political and social bargains by which the Roman empire
controlled its vast territory. The favourable climate, in ways subtle
and profound, was baked into the empire’s innermost structure.
The end of this lucky climate regime did not immediately, or in any
simple deterministic sense, spell the doom of Rome. Rather, a less
favourable climate undermined its power just when the empire was
imperilled by more dangerous enemies – Germans, Persians – from without.
Climate instability peaked in the sixth century, during the reign of
Justinian. Work by dendro-chronologists and ice-core experts points to
an enormous spasm of volcanic activity in the 530s and 540s CE, unlike
anything else in the past few thousand years. This violent sequence of
eruptions triggered what is now called the ‘Late Antique Little Ice
Age’, when much colder temperatures endured for at least 150 years. This
phase of climate deterioration had decisive effects in Rome’s
unravelling. It was also intimately linked to a catastrophe of even
greater moment: the outbreak of the first pandemic of bubonic plague.
Disruptions in the biological environment were even more consequential
to Rome’s destiny. For all the empire’s precocious advances, life
expectancies ranged in the mid-20s, with infectious diseases the leading
cause of death. But the array of diseases that preyed upon Romans was
not static and, here too, new sensibilities and technologies are
radically changing the way we understand the dynamics of evolutionary
history – both for our own species, and for our microbial allies and
adversaries.
The highly urbanised, highly interconnected Roman empire was a boon to
its microbial inhabitants. Humble gastro-enteric diseases such as
Shigellosis and paratyphoid fevers spread via contamination of food and
water, and flourished in densely packed cities. Where swamps were
drained and highways laid, the potential of malaria was unlocked in its
worst form – Plasmodium falciparum – a deadly mosquito-borne protozoon.
The Romans also connected societies by land and by sea as never before,
with the unintended consequence that germs moved as never before, too.
Slow killers such as tuberculosis and leprosy enjoyed a heyday in the
web of interconnected cities fostered by Roman development.
Plague after plague
However, the decisive factor in Rome’s biological history was the
arrival of new germs capable of causing pandemic events. The empire was
rocked by three such intercontinental disease events. The Antonine
plague coincided with the end of the optimal climate regime, and was
probably the global debut of the smallpox virus. The empire recovered,
but never regained its previous commanding dominance. Then, in the
mid-third century, a mysterious affliction of unknown origin called the
Plague of Cyprian sent the empire into a tailspin. Though it rebounded,
the empire was profoundly altered – with a new kind of emperor, a new
kind of money, a new kind of society, and soon a new religion known as
Christianity. Most dramatically, in the sixth century a resurgent empire
led by Justinian faced a pandemic of bubonic plague, a prelude to the
medieval Black Death. The toll was unfathomable – maybe half the
population was felled.
The plague of Justinian is a case study in the extraordinarily complex
relationship between human and natural systems. The culprit, the
Yersinia pestis bacterium, is not a particularly ancient nemesis;
evolving just 4,000 years ago, almost certainly in central Asia, it was
an evolutionary newborn when it caused the first plague pandemic. The
disease is permanently present in colonies of social, burrowing rodents
such as marmots or gerbils. However, the historic plague pandemics were
colossal accidents, spillover events involving at least five different
species: the bacterium, the reservoir rodent, the amplification host
(the black rat, which lives close to humans), the fleas that spread the
germ, and the people caught in the crossfire.
Genetic evidence suggests that the strain of Yersinia pestis that
generated the plague of Justinian originated somewhere near western
China. It first appeared on the southern shores of the Mediterranean
and, in all likelihood, was smuggled in along the southern, seaborne
trading networks that carried silk and spices to Roman consumers. It was
an accident of early globalisation. Once the germ reached the seething
colonies of commensal rodents, fattened on the empire’s giant stores of
grain, the mortality was unstoppable.
The plague pandemic was an event of astonishing ecological complexity.
It required purely chance conjunctions, especially if the initial
outbreak beyond the reservoir rodents in central Asia was triggered by
those massive volcanic eruptions in the years preceding it. It also
involved the unintended consequences of the built human environment –
such as the global trade networks that shuttled the germ onto Roman
shores, or the proliferation of rats inside the empire. The pandemic
baffles our distinctions between structure and chance, pattern and
contingency. Therein lies one of the lessons of Rome. Humans shape
nature – above all, the ecological conditions within which evolution
plays out. But nature remains blind to our intentions, and other
organisms and ecosystems do not obey our rules. Climate change and
disease evolution have been the wild cards of human history.
Our world now is very different from ancient Rome. We have public
health, germ theory and antibiotic pharmaceuticals. We will not be as
helpless as the Romans, if we are wise enough to recognise the grave
threats looming around us, and to use the tools at our disposal to
mitigate them. But the centrality of nature in Rome’s fall gives us
reason to reconsider the power of the physical and biological
environment to tilt the fortunes of human societies. Perhaps we could
come to see the Romans not so much as an ancient civilisation, standing
across an impassable divide from our modern age, but rather as the
makers of our world today. They built a civilisation where global
networks, emerging infectious diseases and ecological instability were
decisive forces in the fate of human societies. The Romans, too, thought
they had the upper hand over the fickle and furious power of the natural
environment. History warns us: they were wrong.
The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire by Kyle
Harper is out now through Princeton University Press.
Kyle Harper is professor of Classics and letters, and senior vice
president and provost at the University of Oklahoma. His latest book is
The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (2017).
(8) China moves ahead with 5G: 550,000 base stations, 500 billion yuan
for ultra-high-voltage power
China has no environmental movement. Its government makes light of
issues that, in the West, would slow development. This was also the case
with Wuhan biolabs. The Soviet Union was similar; it made light of the
risks at nuclear plants, regarding them as mere 'chemical factories',
until Chernobyl brought the reality home. One of China's greatest
supporters, Lyndon Larouche, wrote a book titled "There are No Limits to
Growth":
China’s Trillions Toward Tech Won’t Buy Dominance
The reflex to build infrastructure will pay off even less in the
post-coronavirus era.
By Anjani Trivedi
May 25, 2020, 8:00 AM GMT+10
Big spending numbers are being thrown around in China, once again. This
time, it’s trillions of yuan of fiscal stimulus on all things tech. The
plans are bold and vague: China wants to bring technology into its
mainstream infrastructure buildout and, in the process, heave the
economy out of a gloom due only partly to the coronavirus.
But will this move the needle for China to achieve some kind of
technological dominance? Or increase jobs, or boost favored companies?
Not as much as the numbers would suggest, and possibly very little. A
country covered in 5G networks makes for a tech-savvy society; it's less
clear that this money will boost industrial innovation or even productivity.
Over the next few years, national-level plans include injecting more
than 2.5 trillion yuan ($352 billion) into over 550,000 base stations, a
key building block of 5G infrastructure, and 500 billion yuan into
ultra-high-voltage power. Local governments have ideas, too. They want
data centers and cloud computing projects, among other things. Jiangsu
is looking for faster connectivity for smart medical care, smart
transportation and, well, all things smart. Shanghai’s City Action Plan
alone is supposed to total 270 billon yuan.
By 2025, China will have invested an estimated $1.4 trillion. According
to a work report released Friday in conjunction with the start of the
National People’s Congress, the government plans to prioritize "new
infrastructure and new urbanization initiatives" to boost consumption
and growth. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts have said that new
infrastructure sectors could total 2 trillion yuan ($281 billion) this
year, and twice that in 2021.
Funding is being secured through special bonds and big banks. The
Shanghai provincial administration, for instance, plans to get more than
40% of its needs from capital markets, and the rest from central
government funds and special loans. Thousands of funds have been set up
in various industries since 2018, and some goals were set forth in
previous plans.
Policymakers are aggressively driving the fiscal stimulus narrative
through this new infrastructure lens. Building big things is a tried and
true fallback in China, from the nation’s own road-and-rail networks to
its most important soft-power foreign policy, the belt-and-road
initiative to connect the globe in a physical network for trade.
It’s less obvious that this will work for technology. The reality is
that the central-government approved projects add up to only around 10%
of infrastructure spending and 3% of total fixed asset investment. The
plans lack the focus or evidence of expertise to show quite how China
would achieve technological dominance. Thousands more charging stations
for electric cars won’t change the fact that the country has been unable
to produce a top-of-the-line electric vehicle, and demand for what’s on
offer has tanked without subsidies.
With their revenues barely growing, China’s telecom giants seem
reluctant to allocate capital expenditures toward the bold 5G vision.
China Mobile Ltd. Chairman Yang Jie said on a March earnings call that
capex won’t be expanding much despite the company being at the outset of
a three-year peak period for 5G investments. Analysts had expected it to
grow by more than 20%, compared to the actual 8.4%.
Laying this new foundation for the economy, which includes incorporating
artificial intelligence into rail transit and utilities, requires time,
not just pledged capital. It’s hard to see the returns any time soon,
compared to investments on old infrastructure. These projects are less
labor intensive, so there’s no corresponding whack at the post-virus
jobless rate that would help demand. State-led firms that could boast
big profits from sales of cement and machinery on the back of building
projects, for instance, can’t reap money as visibly from being more
connected.
Spending the old way isn’t paying off like it used to, either. Sectors
such as automobiles and materials, big beneficiaries of subsidies and
state funding, have seen returns on invested capital fall. The massive
push over the years gave China the Shanghai maglev and a vast network of
trains and roads. But much debt remains and several of those projects
still don’t make money. Add in balance-sheet pressures and spending
constraints, and every yuan of credit becomes less effective.
There’s also expertise to consider. Technological dominance may require
research more than 5G poles. China’s problem with wide-scale innovation
remains the same as it has been for years: It always comes from the top
down. Beijing has determined and shaped who the players will be. Good
examples are the 2006 innovative society plan and Made in China 2025,
published in 2015, that intended to transform industries and
manufacturing, and have had mixed results.
China is unlikely to get the boost from tech spending that it needs to
solve present-day problems, especially in the flux of the post-Covid-19
era. Ultimately, the country will just fall back on what it knows best:
property, cars, roads and industrial parks. The economy is still run by
construction, real estate and manufacturing. Investors should think
again before bringing in anything but caution.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial
board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story: Anjani Trivedi at
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick McDowell at
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