China and India are Asia's most populous nations, but here is where the similarity ends. The two nations are poles apart in the way they handle the Covid 19 epidemic!China, the first country in the world to be hit by this deadly virus, is also the first to control it through strict measures, including lockdowns at the early stage, mandatory wearing of facemasks, social distancing, temperature scans everywhere one goes, building a special hospital to treat the infected in just 10 days, etc etc!The results are there for the world to see;  this Labor Day holiday season, the Chinese are out in the millions all over China, enjoying themselves, free of any fear of Covid 19.  Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, celebrated Labor Day with a music festival that drew thousands, while millions poured into Shanghai to shop, eat, have fun, and visit the famous Bund.  The same is repeated in many cities throughout China, with Covid 19 far from the mind of the Chinese, and rightly so, they had complied and lived with the strict measures imposed on them during the Covid 19 surge!  Credit must be given to the Government for its fast action to control the virus and bring life back to normal again, and for its constant vigilance against a resurgence from imported cases!In marked contrast, India is struggling with Covid 19 and has lost the battle to the virus.  Millions of Indians have been infected and hundreds of thousands have died as a result of poor medical attention, lack of hospital beds, lack of oxygen cylinders, lack of vaccines and poor Government action on mask wearing and social distancing!  The dead lay outside hospitals because there were not enough beds to accomodate and treat them while they struggled to live.  The crematoriums are overloaded, with people having to cremate their loved ones on makeshift funeral pyres hastily set up all over the country, a sorry sight on television day in and day out! So desperate are the Indian people for oxygen cylinders for their sick relatives that many resorted to social media for help to no avail.  One lady even risked her health applying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to keep her sick mother alive.  Her mother most likely did not survive such unscientific and risky procedure, but for sure, the daughter would have been infected by the sick mother!How India ended up in such dire straits is a lesson in bad governance which nations should take note of.Conversely, how China so quickly and effectively brought this deadly virus under control is a lesson other nations would do well to learn from!One is the world's largest democracy, held up as a model for the rest of the world by its Western allies, while the other is the much maligned Communist State which the West find hard to accept!  It is obvious which of the two has delivered, and which has failed their people!!

A school principal in Zhengzhou concocted this bizzarre theory that a cooked egg can become  a fresh egg again, and even hatch into a chick.  Her theory was taught to her students before the authorities started an investigation and concluded it was fake theory, and ordered it withdrawn. The principal was sacked!  The school has made a hugh pile of money promoting weird claims to recruit students by claming it helps studenst become smarter by looking at matters from a difffent angle.China's version of the US conspiracy theory promoter, QAnon!

China, and other countries, must take steps to thoroughly screen arrivals from India, even those via third counries, for possible Covid cases.  There are many reported imported cases among Indian arrivals in several countries. Hong Kong has banned flights from India, so have a number of other countries; hope Mainland China does the same, to avoid  another wave of infection!On Tue (27 Apr), Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan angrily hit out at the accuracy of COVID-19 testing in India.A flight which flew from KL to Perth last Sat (24 Apr) showed that 78 of the 79 passengers onboard had recently been in India. So far, 4 COVID-19 cases have been found during hotel quarantine by Tue.“I have just been advised at this morning’s emergency management team meeting that 78 of the 79 passengers on this flight had been in India recently,” McGowan said.“Our expectation is the number of positive cases from this group of people will grow and potentially grow significantly.”He said the accuracy of India’s Covid-19 testing methods could not be trusted.“We obviously have a problem with India,” he said.“Some of the tests conducted in India either aren’t accurate or aren’t believable and clearly that’s causing some issues here.”

President Biden has China constantly on his mind; he keeps referring to China again and again. He even did so when giving his first speech to Congress, during which he made several references to China;  true to form!  Funny, how a developing country like China figures so highly in Biden's scheme of things!Is China a threat to the US?  Obviously not, but Biden constantly uses China to drum up support for his policies, including his trillion dollar infrastructure bill, etc etc. trying to outdo the Republicans in anti-China rhetoric.  China does not pose a threat to the US, but Biden has to create the China bogey to gain Congressional support for his actions!  His acknowledgement that the US has fallen way behind China in infrastructure is a clear indication of his fear of China's rise, and that explains many of his administration's policies towards China, including its policy to maintain the tariffs imposed by his predecessor on Chinese goods, a policy that has done enormous damage to US China relations, as well as the lies about Xinjiang Uyghurs genocide!China should not expect the Biden administration to be more benigh than the Trump administration.  On the contrary, it should expect Biden to be at least as harsh, if not more so, than Trump!  With this as the backdrop, it is hard to see how US and China could meaningfully co-operate in the future for the common good of mankind, something the world badly needs right now!

Millions, if not billions, of Chinese were glued to their TV sets on 15 March to watch the consumer rights program on CCTV. And what a revelation; malpractices in business which normally consumers would not be exposed to! For instance, recycling hospital used and discarded plastic surgical syringes bottles, tubes, etc; dirty recycled materials used to manufacture adult and chidren diapers in abhorrent conditions; businesses providing fake parmacist credentials ro pharmacies to conform with registration requirements, when in fact there were never any qualified pharmacists in those pharmacies involved! And the list of malpractices go on, to the dismay of viewers and consumers!! The supervisory regulatory authorities immediately responded with raids on the premises of the wayward businesses. But that obviously came too late, the damage had already been done; consumers are the only losers! That the regulatory authorities only swung into action after the program exposed massive wrongdoings, is a poor reflection on their work. They are expected to stop malpractices from happening, not to take action only when businesses under their watch are caugt red-handed and exposed by the media!!

China's Two Sessions is currently in progress. Chinese leaders are planning for the next 10, 20, 30 years with their representatives. It can only auger well for China and its people! In marked contrast, US polticians are mired in controversies, and planning for the next election! They can't even resolve the longstanding gun issue, with vested interests blocking attempts at gun control while innocent Americans continue to be slaughtered by their own compatriots. And instead of being economically more productive, they blame everybody else for their economic woes, resorting to illegal trade protectionist measures which will ultimately hurt American consumers more than people of its trading partners! Politicians, looking towards the next election, are more interested in putting in place measures to please their base, their supporters, at the expense of other Americans. Trade protectionism makes goods more expensive for American consumers in general, and the poorer ones in particular. But of course poiticians don't take that into consideration; all they care is to win the next election!

Many people in China, including foreigners living here, seem to take China's gun control laws and the resulting safety, for granted! We hardly hear anyone expressing a desire for gun control in China; certainly no students marching down the streets demanding gun control, as is happening in the US now. Credit must be given the Chinese Government for its tough gun control laws. The reverse situation is true in the US where powerful gun lobby like the NRA(National Rifle Association) and certain politicians prevent the Government there implementing gun controls despite several mass killings using guns in the recent past and before that. When politicians are beholden to certain groups of people, when they look to the next election, they are unwilling to implement policies that antagonize their supporters, with the result that society at large suffers!

As we enter the Year of the Dog, one can't help but wish that dog owners in China improve their social responsibility and not let their dogs be a public nuisance.In years gone by, the media was awashed with cases of dog bites, dogs terrorizing people in public, dog poo all over, dogs barking incessantly in residential neighhoods depriving residents of sleep, etc.It is hoped that dog owners always keep their dogs on the leash when in public, clean up their dog poo, stop their dogs barking incessantly, never take their dogs into shops and supermarkets as that is against public health laws, and most certainly, never take their dogs onboard the plane, even as one airline permits that! Be responsible dog owners and make the Year of the Dog free of dog nuisance! There are no bad dogs, only plenty of bad dog owners! Hope that changes in the Year of the Dog!

CCTV News reported that a certain province (name forgotten) has passed a law holding passengers in a drunk driver's car jointly responsible for drunk driving! What a brilliant piece of legislation! Imagine this scenerio; a traffic poliiceman pulls over a driver on the highway, breath-test him and finds him over the limit, the officer then tickets all the passengers on the spot! It forces passengers to self-police and prevent any drunken friend from getting behind the wheel! That would most certainly reduce the number of drunk driving cases, which have mounted this festive season, and also bring down the number of deaths and injuries resulting from drunlk driving! Passengers always know if the driver has consumed alcohol; now the law holds them responsible if they failed to stop him driving! What a powerful deterrent against drunk driving, and all because passengers are held legally liable with the driver!This is a very smart piece of legislation, and should be implemented in all provinces throughout China! This is probably the first law of its kind in the whole world! The traffic police should be given a medal for such an ingenius idea! Who says the Chinese are not innovative?

Recently I posted two threads that started a heated discussion; they are, "China's Government Never Shut Down!" and " Many Chinese Have Become Rich Before They Have Become Civilized".Seneca, a vocal opponent, employed all sorts of tactics, incluidng half truths, twisted facts, and downright lies to counter the opinion expressed in those threads. That's not a problem; I can handle all that; I can debunk his lies!But, failing to win the argument based on points, he has descended into the cesspit by accusing me of being a reincarnation of the banned poster 'sansukong'! Read his post #434, " You are SANSUKONG the Malaysia-based propagandist who in the recent past tried "to influence the Chinese government" (your words) with paid-for propaganda from U.S. American think tanks enlisted to spread disinformatsiya on Climate Change." He made two failed attempts to link me with 'sansukong'; first, falsely claiming that I live in Kuala Lumpur, and then changed it to saying I live in Borneo, both of which were wrong! I never lived there, and besides, I am not a Malaysian, as he falsely claimed in his desperate attempt to link me with 'sansukong', who apparently must be a Malaysian!I am NOT 'sansukong'; I have never posted any thread on climate change! That's his desperate attempt to discredit and silence me! This is scandalous and unforgiveable; he has crossed the 'red line' and I have reported him to CD for breaking Forum rules and for abusing Forum for his personal vendetta against a fellow forumite! I have also demanded that seneca apologize and remove his scandalous posts, which he has not done so!If CD failed to take tough action against the perpetrator of such low down tactics, it would be seen as condoning such behavior, and encouraging re-offending!Readers are entitled to know the truth behind this false accusation by one poster against another poster for his own selfish personal reasons. If such low down tactics are not dealt with appropriately by CD, there is nothing to stop this culprit from doing the same to other posters, bringing disgrace ad disrepute to Forum! Every forumite is a potential victim of his!!