tdgeek:

 

I'll post tonight, comments from my wife, ex Wuhan, as they have frequent contact with rellies up there, and her and the mum in law (who now lives here but has the apartment still in Wuhan) are on a video right now. Just a small sample, but may be of interest.

 

As promised, here is an annecdotal account from my wife, who is Chinese and from Wuhan. Mum in law lives with us. They are a proud people, proud of their country, a lot like Americans. Wife is also, from the reforms and progress China has made, but she has been quite candid.

Contact via FaceTime with rellies has been frequent. She watches Coronavirus news a lot as do the people in China, this is on the Chinese chanels. Mum in law is, and some rellies are in south Wuhan, south of the river. The infection rate there is quite low. They are ruled to stay inside, no contact with anyone else. The feeling at least for this super small sample is that its not great, but they have to and want to do whats required. So its not seen as terrible or bad, but necessary. There are what wife called "naughty people" who go outside with no mask (breaks the rule) argue with Police. If they get detained they can be fined 500 Yuan, get 10 days in the clink, and serve one year in prison later. Food and provisions are provided at the door. No contact with others is allowed, including other apartment dwellers. So, they are stuck inside, they get food and water etc provided, which they pay for. Quarantine wise, thats a good result. yes, its a bugger being stuck inside, but they live in apartments anyway, so anecdotally, its not a huge deal, but not ideal. Clearly some see it as bad, which is fair enough. 

They are visiting every home, taking temp with the temp gun, asking how they feel. if not great, they are taken to huge stadiums and conference centres for quarantine and treatment. The worse area is Hankou, Wuhan means three cities, Hankou is one of them. The meat market that is seen as the start of the virus is there, about 1km from Hankou train station. Its bad there.

Travel is super cheap. While the Mum in law was ij south Wuhan, the home town (late fathers home town and burial place) is near the border with the Henan province. Its 1 hour via fast train at 160 Yuan. Or 50 Yuan for the regular train, 3 hours. So, if people wish to get out of Dodge its very quick and very cheap. Factor in panic and New Year, that hasn't helped.

A Governer or some form of leader in Hubei told them there are 108 million facemasks available. Then it was 1.8 million, then it was 186,000. Fired. Wife says many leaders will be removed with this sort of bad management. Which is in line with China's goals to succeed. Stop corruption etc.

This is one small sample from one place, it will vary. If the management is poor, no doubt the people will feel aggrieved. In other areas where its not as intense as Wuhan/Hubei, it would I assume be much more manageable.

What I take from this, is that its probably manageable by the people, after all, they seek help from the leader and want to comply, and they are cautious, so its less an issue to put up with stuff the perhaps we in NZ would want to. For the virus, thats a good thing, but how in heck do you manage 1,700,000,000 people with al the levels of management needed? And while they want to and are getting rid of corruption as best they can, its still a minefield or bad management here and there. If they were all rock solid that way, its still a logistical nightmare.

But, thats one sample of one area. What Im proud of is the wife who is super proud, is hitting hard at those management levels that are not performing. They all have to go, and from all accounts they will. SARS 2003 was a failure. This is bigger, and its been handled a lot better, but there is still failure at various levels, and Id hate to be a less than ideal part of that management structure. But I gather it will be less harsh than how they used to get rid of bad apples.

Cheers