Those who equate criticism of the Chinese government with sinophobia or racism are carrying water for a genocidal regime, and doing immense disservice to the very people they claim to be defending.
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Replying to @Pinboard
Alternatively, maybe our best future hope for international cooperation on lab safety issues is to *not* pick a politically-fraught argument with China.
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Replying to @matthew_d_green
What's the point of cooperation on lab safety issues that has no controls, disclosure, or impartial investigation after a pandemic? What's worth preserving here?
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Replying to @Pinboard
There is a future in which China, not faced with a direct accusation of malfeasance and the accompanying loss of face, sits down voluntarily to agree on tougher lab safety standards. Because this is a position that benefits them.
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Replying to @matthew_d_green
It comes down to saying "we have to be nice to China or they'll take even shittier precautions next time." The accusation of malfeasance, if it's wrong, is one they can easily disprove through disclosure.
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Replying to @Pinboard
I think at this point we’ve moved pretty decisively away from a world in which China discloses anything. And fantasizing about it doesn’t help. In the world we live in, is there a good outcome? Even the USSR came to the table over things.
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Replying to @matthew_d_green
I'm not a "give up before trying" person, so I think the first good step is investigation, even if the Chinese government offers no assistance. And rewarding their bullying tactics on this or any other point is counterproductive.
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Replying to @Pinboard
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that this was an accidental lab leak. Let’s also assume the CCP knows this. I’m thinking they’re *strongly* incentivized to prevent future leaks. What they won’t accept is any strategy that threatens hold them responsible for COVID.
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Replying to @matthew_d_green @Pinboard
So at a certain point you have to ask what it is you really want. Do you want international lab safety controls? Or do you want to try to find the truth, even if the cost is that you get neither truth nor lab safety controls.
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Replying to @matthew_d_green
The question under that hypothetical would not be making sure China brings itself up to some putatively safe international norms, but questioning those norms themselves, and cutting off whole fields of research globally as too dangerous to conduct.
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It does us no good for the next pandemic if China identifies the source of covid in research programs or lab practices that remain routine in 50 other countries, and silently clamps down. That's why the details of what happened in such a scenario matter.
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Replying to @Pinboard
Yes and if I thought there was even a 1% chance that China would ever allow us to collect those details I’d be on your side.
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Replying to @matthew_d_green
They do collect an awful lot of information, and the inherent derpiness of authoritarian states (combined with brave individuals) makes me more hopeful than you that we'll find out more.
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