A sense of whats going to happen as we were trying to film we just stopped my camera being school teacher. My colleague you know neal be here in about 202915 minutes with the pull of the news this is our chief International Sort of. A low end welcome to cross talk where all Things Considered im Peter Lavelle the coronavirus is a Global Health danger that is yet to be contain this fire is has also raised questions about the integrity of supply chains open borders and the weaknesses of globalization and dangerously this virus is being used as a political weapon. In the coronavirus im joined by my guest fred tang in new york he is president of the american China Public Affairs institute in delaware we have scott ritter he is a former Intelligence Officer and the United Nations weapons inspector and in beijing we cross to john gong he is a professor at the university of International Business and economics right cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want to appreciate let me go to scott 1st here scott you wrote an event tast article i saw it in the american conservative titled tit for tat coronavirus politics are making us sick what a wonderful title i like the last sentence a lot im going to repeat it for our audience here politics is trumping science and medicine diluting the effectiveness of any response the consequences could be very well catastrophic what you mean by that go ahead scott. Well again im not a doctor but we do have what appears to be you know prepared dimmick conditions or regarding the spread of corona virus this is something that has the attention of people around the world especially here in the United States but also japan and china iran italy everybodys feeling the effect of this its a medical issue its one that requires scientists and doctors to focus resources on to identify the problem and come up with a solution the United States should be a leader in this regard we are the Worlds Largest economic power were the worlds you know we have Significant Resource that can be brought to bear but instead of you know focusing our energies we have republicans and democrats we have a president and congress playing politics the president calling it a hoax congress and the president of you know putting together teams that arent a viable scientifically led by mike pence who they continually degrade there might be some legitimacy to their their complaints or the point is this isnt helping solve the problem this is weve turned this into a political one upmanship during the american silly season the worst time for political one upmanship a president ial campaign in the end result is were not getting done what probably needs to be done to prevent this drone of ours from becoming a Global Pandemic i mean going to challenge in beijing i mean john you know as you look out western media particularly American Media has been covering this i mean do you think that the American Media is framing it correctly because i mean there is a very strong subtext that to know this is somehow chinas fault or china can rise to the challenge of it because of its government because of its economy because of its people i mean theres a very strong undercurrent of anti chinese elements being played out here at least thats my reading go ahead john in beijing. Well from what ive been reading the American Press so far i think that of a couple of issues here 1st of all you notice of blaming as you pointed out that this originates from china and its or chinas fall but i havent seen this series of you square law i mean talk a lot about this the 2nd attack is about initial response to this in a some reports about chinas government sort of cover up socalled a cover up and were at the very least being slowing to respond to this quickly and the 3rd kind of a serious that you know its an attack on the chinese system saying well china has this konya magic locked down city of 20000000. 00 people you cannot be done its impossible to do it things are only going to get worse then there has been pretty much for a few days so far but as a matter of fact as of today the number of new cases in china ill settle will be province is less than 10 and the numbers nude in fact it within the who have problems with us originated it is also less than 10 excluding the city of hama the signal will cost you have some problems you know the number is a 100 something but its dramatically don so clearly i think the measures the socalled 2 konya majas has been working very effectively so far and this also be indorsed by the the head of the show china joint Investigative Team this guy is a canadian doctor he had a very round statement at the press conference of a few days ago 20 out that conclusively that the matches taken by chinas government so far has been very effective so clearly you know this is the very best these are also the whats in it that is certainly not a message its making american cable i can tell you that fred if this disease had come out of italy do you think the reaction would have been different. Yes i think it will be different because right now since the tree was going on there is a tendency of the human eyes in china or whatever its happening in china but people have this that when the diseases and when this should not be politicized because it is the real people who live in. Mathis and also if its contagious if we politicizing it its just going to affect and spread to more cities and more countries you know its got one of the broader issues i think that serious people look at this and look at policy is the whole question of globalization is being reassessed now because there is the charge the claim that a lot of these things that need to be to cured are only can be had from china and not in the United States i think for example like penicillin it is no longer produced in the United States been outsourced here and im not blaming china and im blaming American Companies for moving their i mean they abandon workers in america for profits ok its very easy to demonize china in this respect but dummy china wants to get rich like everybody else here so the issue of globalization open borders supply change things like that go ahead scott well i mean it look we live in a reality in a reality based world where globalization is a thing and its not easily reversed if it can be reversed we you know weve outsourced our entire economic model is dependent upon you know getting components at the cheapest possible price. You know and yes when there is an impact if china shuts down the factories that produce the components we need are producing those components of japan shuts down if it only shuts down if any nation that produces components that are used in the American Economy should stay on you know obviously there will be an impact but at the end of the day you know this coronavirus is this isnt you know the end of the world this. Isnt something thats you know next until threat to humanity it will be resolved in those factories will come back up and those parts will be provided produce so i dont see this as a as a threat to globalization but i do see the short Term Economic impact being politicized so that we we have people trying to score political points exploiting you know the short term inconvenience of you know of supply Chain Disruption well it does tell you that an event like this can have depth have an impact that may be unforseen and i think that and there is some hope smart people reassess and think whats going on here basic medicine you should produce it at home but i think thats common sense its common sense but its not just go ahead no i agree but its but its not just coronavirus this is you talk about a larger issue youre talking about the larger issue of globalization weve always had a problem if politics intervenes if the china in the United States through a trade dispute you know we get the supply saying disruption if japan and south korea as you know problems with each other create this so its not just coronavirus that youre talking about a larger issue on a global is a guy im agreeing with you i mean he was is highlighted this but this exactly its highlighted here let me go to john here john what if you want to jump in john go ahead. Yeah in my view you know theres the idea that their supply chain is greatly affected by this i think its greatly greatly overblown you know initially there are some reports about b. M. W. Factually because a European Union some parts from china but you know other than dad i dont think this quickly a fact as a matter of fact the Chinese Government has been going out of her way to help Foreign Companies operating here in china given example when companies resume production the 1st thing they need is mosques and other this in fact and other protective gear that kind of things to make sure that workers in a factious are not going to be a fact it and you know these supplies a kind of thing such a short supply these days each other and a Chinese Government minister of commerce has come out with a decree saying that we should have a problem with people those companies Foreign Companies operating in china and if you look at the statistics the percentage of companies that have been coming back to production the rate of resumption of production is almost 70 to 90 percent in most parts of china so i dont believe you know i have some doubt skeptical about the theory that the supply just been great to be a fact and as a matter of fact this issue has been precisely be used as a as a political weapon to sort of you dont quit companies can in china out of out of china as a matter of fact the secretary of commerce wilbur ross at a very early time came out and saying this could be a very Good Opportunity for American Companies going back to United States you know its very clear its been politicized yeah i mean fred you know they would give me one of the biggest criticisms of this whole thing of china is that its not transparent enough do you agree with that assessment i mean you hear it all the time but when i hear something all the dogs in the Mainstream Media thats when i begin to doubt go ahead fred. Well i think just this girl in the virus as the case china has been reporting numbers day by day province by province and it is very transparent if you compare that to the flu the influenza in the United States we have 16000 people who die from it we do not see that they number into a state by state. Who was infected and who was hospitalized i do want to add that about globalization globalization in the self its good it helps low and of course it benefits most of the consumers in the world the problem here is supplier management i do think that i do nothing to a lot of these businesses on manufacturing is coming back to the United States but these could be many in different locations parts of the world so that we would not be you know in case of some disruption we would not be short change of the supplies so i think the same way you know scott have talked earlier because of the trade was so for china was affected where United States would not sell to the chips of them for them to make so forms so i think thats another thing is the supply chain as a world for doing business we should not politicize that and using that as a weapon against each other and particularly since the the at least the 1st phase of the trade deal is really quite contentious and there are some very big challenges ahead for both countries and again there are going to be policy makers are going to look at what this call coronavirus and how it impacts trade and how trade agreements can and should be made in the future im going to where we do it a short break here after that short break well continue our discussion in the coronavirus state with our city. Kind of financial survival job today was all about Money Laundering 1st too because if this case should just be different. Oh good this is a good start well we have our 3 banks all set up here maybe something in your something in america something overseas in the Cayman Islands or do we do all these banks are complicit in the progresses we decide to give mccall and say ok im going to do some serious Money Laundering ok lets see how we did while weve got a nice luxury watch for max and for stacy oh beautiful jewelry how about. Luxury automobile again for max you know what Money Laundering is highly illegal thank you so much kaiser of course. Time after time corporations repeat the same mantra sustainability. Is accelerate the transition to sustainable transport sustainability and a more equitable and sustainable well. They claim that production is completely hominis. Because. Companies want us to feel good about products while the damage is being done far away this is Something Else this must be going down even if i. Knew this and we didnt. Understand it looks so good so good and. Welcome to cross talk where all things are considered im peter were discussing the coronavirus. Or lets go back to scott scott one of the things thats happened during the course of the last few weeks even months is the rise of conspiracy theories trying to explain whats going on here you have there was a law that lost control of a this virus that was intentionally generated engineered by on the other hand maybe the American Senate there because of the trade war and you have a whole lot of a plethora of theories out there that are floating around on the internet why is that why is this happening or sister nature of our age that a Conspiracy Theory for everything go ahead scott 1st of all what started so nature of the of the internet age especially where youre going to get this kind of buzz taking place i think one of the reasons. Why this has been nipped in the bud is because of politics you know there this is one of the things i was trying to say early on is theres a need for leadership for scientists for doctors for experts to stand in front of the public and inform them about exactly what is going on the exact nature of the threat and if they dont know something to look in the camera and say we dont know this is this time but were working on it and we will get back to you thats not happening when we do get doctors speaking of their message gets diluted by politicians who either undercut or overhype what the doctors are trying to say you know theres a lot of questions out there about you know were just what jackley coronavirus is you know how its spread why do people who are a systematic spread the disease things things of this nature how do you handle it do you wear a face mask do you wash your hands do you do both these are these are things that sound leadership could address early on educate the public inform the public and this would nip the conspiracies in the bud but you know these conspiracies thrive in a vacuum and right now we have a vacuum of you know highly sourced information about rotavirus and so you know people are going to be speculate or be susceptible to speculation you know you know john i mean ive been following this very closely i kind of waited a week or so to do a program on because i actually what scott was saying was trying to understand the story because theres so many contradictory things coming about out about it not an unfortunate i think its intentional because people are playing politics but john i mean i know you dont speak for the government in beijing but i would have to imagine that the the government in beijing is a bit. Curious and disturbed that you hear the president of the United StatesSay Something then you see the speaker of the house palosi say another thing and theyre squabbling and then you have a medical professionals giving us kind of the hard news this is going to be hard to contain a lot more people will probably catch it and we have to hold learn a whole lot more but you have this political level and then you have this expertise level and theyre not talking to each other at least thats my perception of it go ahead john. Well 1st of all let me say a few words about Conspiracy Theory i think theres also a fish out of Conspiracy Theory here in china as well but i think its a bit different our United States and you know the fact that the conspiracy is through usurer sells its like sacks of yourselves very well its a business actually other than that theres also a group of people who knew that if states that are into vaccine and these people had a political agenda they used as you know it as it was i know there are people United States refused to take back scenes and they use into this opportunity to censure the public in this theory that this has a lot to do with people trying to get vaccines but theres not that pot in china in china i think theres a lot to do with people just trying to make money out of this you know its a its a real big business if you think about it you know the the rulers these various conspiracy theorists are not so much coming from serious media dollars theyre mostly coming from these whats c