This wouldn’t be the first time China used something like this as a pretext for non tariff trade barriers.
Zerohedge- Chinese Lockdowns Expand, Raising More Questions About Beijing’s Motives For Shutting Down
All told, we are witnessing a significant increase in the intensity of lockdowns across China – the very same actions that led us to supply chain hell in 2020 to begin with.
Given the global backdrop and what we now know about the virus, it’s tough to draw a road of logic that doesn’t, at some point, lead to asking questions about whether or not China could be engaging in these lockdowns on purpose.
And the there’s this.
Reuters- China’s oil champion prepares Western retreat over sanctions fear
China’s top offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC Ltd. (0883.HK) is preparing to exit its operations in Britain, Canada and the United States, because of concerns in Beijing the assets could become subject to Western sanctions, industry sources said.
Lockdowns in China are basically the equivalent of self-imposed sanctions. Primarily they are shooting themselves in their own feet. That’s not the first time central planners embarked on a lousy plan of action however.
China’s population is around 1.5 billion. There are 25 million in Shanghai. What happens to them would be insignificant to the Politburo. Like Stalin said, the death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic.
My suspicions is it’s a fuel shortages which they were having before Covid in this supply chain of just in time supply deliveries.
With any delays, it generated a snowball effect of more time and more fuels being used.
Covid became a good cover as well as the US Dollar did an amazing attack on the Russian Economy which China has a huge vested interest in.
I really don’t think China will be sending any more shipments overseas unless it absolutely has to.
It also costs vastly more to ship these huge distances as well as much more fuel being used.
Prewar purges and sanitation? Perhaps now would be a good time to short Taiwan Semiconductor.
On purpose? You mean for a purpose other than the one stated? Governments always tell people the truth don’t they? I’m shocked!
I think Dennis (above) may have a good point; there seem to be easier ways to “punish the West” than the Chinese crushing their own economy and millions of their own people. And it’s not like they’d even need a pretext to shutter port operations or a manufacturing hub to “own” all of us degenerate running-dog capitalist pigs. I detect the scent of incompetence and hubris in all of these actions, with unfortunate consequences for the rest of us. Governments everywhere, even to the top echelons, are well-stacked with lots and lots of incompetent, unimaginative, hide-bound stiff-necks, willing to do the same actions over and over again regardless of their effectiveness. We’ve certainly seen enough examples of that here in Canada **COUGH**Justin Trudeau**COUGH**.
If you have ANY dependency on China for ANY supplies, find another supplier now.
Preferably in the continental Americas or Europe. Even if it costs significantly more.
If there is no alternative, there is a business opportunity here.
Punish the West? What for? The West is a lost cause. Everybody with the sense God gave a goose knows that.
All China is doing now is cashing out in advance of Putin’s finally letting the blue-eyed devils have it. The CCP are evil. They’re not stupid.
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, COVID IS A FRAUD. NOW TAKE YOUR SHOTS AND S T F U.
I don’t believe lock downs are an effective measure against disease, BUT if you do lock down, compare and contrast:
Western nations: nobody go to work but its ok to have huge crowds, line ups at the few businesses that we leave open (i.e. grocery stores and Walmart)
China: Everybody stay in your house and don’t leave for any reason. We will bring you food so you don’t have to leave.
Seems the Chinese idea is the better of the two for preventing spread of disease.
I don’t think the CCP is doing this to punish the west. To punish the West, they could easily do a Western style lockdown and just close businesses.
What about the possibility of experimenting? Maybe preparing for what they release next time?
So they tried the Wuhan method: Allow healthy people to go about their lives and with detection measures everywhere (fever detection at businesses, public transport, work places, schools, etc) they tried to identify and isolate the sick people.
Then they watched the western countries close schools and work places.
Now they tried a complete lock down of a city.
CCP takes notes on where, why and how the measures fail propose solutions and now they are about to lock down a new city. Maybe trying to iron out the failures?
Just throwing out random ideas