The Daily Beast has reported that the Trump administration has decided to escalate the rhetoric with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow at a rapid pace in the U.S., the White House is launching a communications plan across multiple federal agencies that focuses on accusing Beijing of orchestrating a “cover-up” and creating a global pandemic, according to two U.S. officials and a government cable obtained by The Daily Beast.
The cable, sent to State Department officials Friday, lays out in detail the circumstances on the ground in China, including data on coronavirus cases and deaths, the local business environment and transportation restrictions. But it also issues guidelines for how U.S. officials should answer questions on, or speak about, the coronavirus and the White House’s response in relation to China.
The talking points appear to have originated in the National Security Council. One section of the cable reads “NSC Top Lines: [People’s Republic of China] Propaganda and Disinformation on the Wuhan Virus Pandemic.”
“Chinese Communist Party officials in Wuhan and Beijing had a special responsibility to inform the Chinese people and the world of the threat, since they were the first to learn of it,” the cable reads. “Instead, the… government hid news of the virus from its own people for weeks, while suppressing information and punishing doctors and journalists who raised the alarm. The Party cared more about its reputation than its own people’s suffering.”
I cannot tell you how GALACTICALLY FUCKING STUPID THIS IS!!!! Even if you set aside the whole “is this something we really need to be focusing on right now as we are confronting a pandemic” that has been mismanaged by the Federal government since January 2020*, just from a Psychological Operations (PSYOP) or Information Operations (IO) perspective this is just absolutely, mindnumbingly dumb! Despite the PRC’s internal and external mistakes at the beginning of the outbreak, mistakes that were made because the PRC is an authoritarian state and society and it is led by authoritarians who fear the free flow of information, especially bad information on their ability to maintain power and control, it is too late for the US to shape the information domain by establishing information dominance before moving on to diplomatic and humanitarian efforts.
As with every other aspect of the President’s and his administration’s response to SARS-CoV2/COVID-19, it failed to do anything to set the information space to establish the conditions for informational control pertaining to SARS-CoV2/COVID-19. As a result, and despite the PRC’s early communication and information stumbles, derived from authoritarian paranoia about maintaining control, the PRC quickly got its information operations back in order, set the information space, and used that to facilitate its diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in regard to the pandemic response. This is why we had stories last week that as the President and his administration dithered and careened wildly and fell farther and farther behind, the PRC now had a handle on the outbreak within China and was sending doctors, nurses, and medical supplies and material as humanitarian aid to Italy and other states. And that the PRC’s utlra-wealthy, with the backing of Xi’s government, were going to do the same thing to help America dig itself out the hole that the President and his administration keep digging us deeper into, as well as to Asian-Pacific states that needed assistance that the US would normally be, but is not providing.
The announcement of these efforts by the PRC directly, or indirectly through China’s ultra-wealthy, were intended to set the information space as if it was a theater of operations in order to establish information dominance and establish information control of the operating environment. Just as the President and his administration have wasted over two months since being alerted by the US Intelligence Community that the PRC wasn’t being forthcoming, that things were worse than were being reported by the PRC in its official communications with the World Health Organizations (WHO) and other states like the US, it failed to quickly move to establish information control. Again, just from a PSYOP or IO perspective, this would have meant immediately going public that things were worse than being reported, that the US was on it, that the Defense Production Act was being invoked and orders issued tasking US domestic manufacturers to immediately switch to producing personal protective equipment (PPE: gowns, masks, gloves, face shields), ventilators, increase pharmaceutical production to get ahead of possible shortages, and tasking domestic laboratories and university health science research centers to make tests using the data provided by the PRC through the WHO. And that the US would be available to provide some of these to states in need because the US is the only state that can do global strategic lift and logistics because we have an expeditionary military designed to be proactive to meet all challenges and threats. None of this was done. And once Xi felt that he had his domestic situation under control he immediately moved to fill the vacuum left by focusing on America first and keeping America great. Neither of which are actually working so well for actual Americans. As a result, Xi moved to occupy this information space by offering humanitarian assistance, which furthers his diplomatic efforts through the Belt and Road Initiative. Xi and the PRC now hold the information equivalent of the ridge of Little Round Top and the administration’s attempt to take control of the information space regarding SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 is the Information Operations equivalent of Pickett’s Charge.
But it is even worse than just wasting time and resources trying to reclaim information control over SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 when other more important efforts are needed to respond to the pandemic. What these geniuses on the National Security Staff on the National Security Council and others within the administration, including the President, who think this is a good fight to pick seem to have forgotten is THAT ALL OF THE PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT – GLOVES, MASKS, FACE SHIELDS, GOWNS – AND THE PRECURSORS FOR ALMOST ALL OF OUR PHARMACEUTICALS COME FROM THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA!!!!! And that If you piss Xi off right now, he can destroy us just by shutting off the supply chain!
Not one bit of this futile, stupid effort will do A DAMN THING TO HELP A SINGLE AMERICAN OR ANYONE ELSE ANYWHERE ELSE SURVIVE THE SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 PANDEMIC OR THE ECONOMIC DAMAGE THAT IS A RESULT!!!!!
MORONS!
Open thread!
* I’m going to try to get to this monumental clusterfuck of an intelligence failure by the President tomorrow.
Omnes Omnibus
So…. Not a fan?
Elizabelle
What I would really like to discuss: should we totally get out of the stock market? Do you see any good news coming, for a long long time? Can you imagine what Monday opening bell will look like?
Or in a few days, when we have wholesale-level United States deaths from COVID, and they are coming.
Adam L Silverman
I’m going to walk the Dog Lanterns. Back in 30 minutes or so!
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: I’m a low intensity warfare specialist. This covers everything from revolution to rebellion to insurgency to terrorism to how to counter all of those to irregular, asymmetric, and unconventional warfare to Civil Affairs and PSYOPS. I have a 401K and I pay a professional to manage it, or what’s left off it after the past two weeks. I can advise on the best way to overthrow the government or prevent it from being overthrown. Stock tips not so much!
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: What ever gave you that idea?//
Just One More Canuck
Kind of on topic, but what is with the numbers they are using on the CNN town hall? 13,000 cases in the US? ‘At least’ 193 deaths. Johns Hopkins says over 25,000 confirmed cases and 307 deaths, and those are consistent with other sources
joel hanes
Whatever is the worst possible action in a given situation, there’s a pretty good chance that Trump will find a worse one and take it.
It really is a sort of inverse genius.
Matt McIrvin
It’s not dumb if the point of the psyop is to keep Trump’s supporters from noticing that he’s the one bungling this.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: I am intuitive and shit.
Kent
It’s worse still. Trump is MAINTAINING the current tariffs on medical supplies from China. Trump can put tariffs into place in an instant with a stroke of the pen. But they are currently taking public comment until FUCKING JUNE 25 as to whether to reduce or eliminate the current 25% tariff on medical supplies and personal protective gear like masks. Trump could eliminate this tariff with a stroke of the pen today if he wanted.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/trade/488799-trump-administration-seeks-public-comment-on-removing-tariffs-on-medical
MoCA Ace
Every accusation…..
Every. Fucking. One.
Kent
The numbers are all just fantasy at this point. My wife is the regional coordinator for Kaiser here in Vancouver WA. They aren’t even bothering to test most suspected cases anymore due to lack of testing. Same in LA and elsewhere. And they are seeing more and more deaths due to respiratory failure of elderly patients who never got tested. My wife has had two in the past 24 hours.
So, both numbers, total cases, and total fatalities are just fantasy numbers at this point. She says the only ones getting tested around here right now are health care workers with symptoms. So they know who to send home to quarantine, and who to make keep working through the sniffles.
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: It depends on your time horizon.
There is going to be massive pent-up demand when this winds down. There is massive work that has needed to be done for decades on infrastructure. There is massive work that needs to be done to transition to renewable energy sources. Massive work to recover from this coming recession.
Money is free to the US Government now. Only politics prevents it from being spent.
With enough Democrats in office in January, (nearly) all things are possible. It will take time to recover, but the recovery will come and probably much quicker than when Moscow Mitch was saying NO to everything Obama wanted to do.
If you don’t need the money now, leave it alone.
Market timing doesn’t work. Dollar cost averaging does.
If you need the money now, sell the least amount possible to meet your needs. Don’t eat your seed corn unless you have to.
My opinion, not financial advice, etc., etc.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
patrick II
My wife watches a Chinese news channel. Today the whole two hour afternoon news broadcast was about our racist president Trump calling the virus “the Chinese virus”. Tit for tat in the hate building business.
schrodingers_cat
@Another Scott: Good advice.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@patrick II: wasn’t he prattling on about how Xi is his ‘friend’ just yesterday?
Quaker in a Basement
The blame isn’t going to deflect itself, is it?
oatler.
Mr President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!
lumpkin
What’s the over/under on how many more ways trump finds to fuck this up?
PeakVT
How Trumpolini is handling China right now is monumentally stupid, but not as evil as how he is handling Iran.
Morzer
What amazes me is the polling in the US and Britain showing that majorities in both countries apparently approve of the way their worthless governments are fucking up this crisis beyond belief. Myself, I think it’s time to revert to the old, tried and tested policy of throwing failed kings into live volcanoes to placate the angry gods. Let’s face it, we’ve got a boatload of failed conservative kings to work through, so we might as well get started.
Kristine
@Another Scott: Really hoping you’re right.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
CaseyL
I have a nasty suspicion Trump’s delay was so Jared could find medical equipment companies to buy, so The Family could clean up on being a sole source for vital medical supplies.
If he’s now raging on China again, my guess is Jared has acquired the necessary companies and Trump is ready to cut off trade with China altogether. He’ll book TV time to roll out his Family owned business and say “Get them from us.” Everything will have Trump logos and MAGA printed on it.
patrick II
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes, he was. But aside from the fact that he has also called Kim, Putin, Erdogan, and Duterte friends, I don’t get what he is doing. I don’t think he does either.
Morzer
@patrick II: Worth noting that North Korea has fired multiple missiles over the last month and “tough guy” Donnie has said nothing whatsoever.
Kelly
A neighbor is a semi-retired RN. Fills in at individual practices for vacations and such as it suits her. I saw her in her yard and asked “What’s the medical scuttlebutt on the virus?” “Bad, much worse than on the news”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle:
Morzer
@CaseyL: “Gilded MAGA face masks as prayed over by Paula White and Donald Trump in the Temple of Mammon. Check out that beautiful golden calf logo!”
Another Scott
https://beyer.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4757
Moscow Mitch is trying to ram a bill through the Senate on Monday (with no input from the House) as a fait accompli . It’s good that Representatives aren’t rolling over.
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
Somewhat tangentially, Iran is unable to purchase the things they need to help Iranians suffering from COVID-19 because of sanctions:
(my bold)
A real Christian would pause sanctions as a humanitarian gesture.
Just One More Canuck
@Kent:
At least with the Johns Hopkins numbers, you can say, ‘ok, yeah, I see that’. the numbers they were using were pulled out of someone’s ass
Martin
@Elizabelle: I am still in the market.
Retirement for me is nominally in 10 years, though I’ve been preparing for it to be any day depending on whether circumstances force my hand.
I’m of the view that at the back end of this you’ll have a whole range of industries that go like gangbusters and a whole range of industries that will be in ruins. If you can navigate that, I think it’ll be okay. Not saying that’ll be easy, mind you, but I think there will be a lot of feast and famine out there.
I don’t see any place to flee the market to, and I think there’s a limit to the downside risk at this point. We’re not losing physical infrastructure, so there’s no capital cost here. It’s mostly a problem of consumer demand falling off a cliff because of government restrictions and job losses. How we address that will determine a great deal of how we recover.
On the upside, if anything should put the lie to trickle down economics, it’s this. All the money in the world won’t reopen the casinos.
Another Scott
@Just One More Canuck: I assume they’re using the CDC numbers:
Since Donnie wants small numbers, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if people at CDC were directed to not update that page very quickly.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
I did some stylistic clean up up top. Being so mad you could smack someone around the head and shoulders with Joint Publication 3-13.2 is not conducive to clear, effective, and stylistically error free writing!
Adam L Silverman
@Just One More Canuck: I do not know. I try not to watch CNN.
Just One More Canuck
@Another Scott: it’s weird though – they don’t tie into any reasonable source. My wife and I kept yelling at the screen, “Where the hell did you get those numbers?” until she gave up and went to watch Pride and Prejudice, and I switched to Dial M for Murder
Elizabelle
@ Martin. @ Another Scott:
Thank you for your comments. I am still so nervous. I don’t see how cashing out at 35% loss is not better than seeing a 50% or 70% drop.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve noticed!
West of the Rockies
Adam, this is OT, but do you think Russia will come out of this in bad shape, too? Oil prices have plummeted, they probably have a mediocre medical infrastructure…
Thoughts?
chris
@Another Scott:Worldometers would disagree. Scroll down for their list where USA is now #3! behind china and Italy but rising fast.
Adam L Silverman
@Kent: I have been assured that trade wars are easy to win.
Another Scott
@chris: I look at the JH map several times a day. It’s clear the CDC numbers are very low. I was merely pointing out where they came from, and why they were low.
At the moment the JH map (last updated 9:43 PM) has:
USA – 25,493 confirmed cases
323 deaths, 176 recovered
:-(
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@Morzer:
Links? Do you mean this ABC/ipsos poll for the US?
It is 512 adults, error bars about 5% [1]. Journalistic malpractice (or deliberate propaganda) to report it without an explanation of polling error.
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2020-03/topline-abc-news-coronavirus-032020.pdf
[1] In-head math: error bars are (roughly) sqrt(poll size)/poll size ( multiply by 100 for percentage)
Adam L Silverman
@West of the Rockies: Apparently Russia is reporting a lot of “flu” right now. My understanding from the reporting is that Putin wants to get through being made president for life before there will be any consideration of a course correction in dealing with the pandemic. That is his sole short term goal right now. Give this a read.
https://amp.ft.com/content/b8141e08-693a-11ea-800d-da70cff6e4d3?__twitter_impression=true
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
While I agree, I think it was very stupid of us and many other countries to outsource vital products like PPE and drug production to a single country where supply chains could not only be disrupted by events such as the current pandemic but also give our enemies a means to control us. The US’ medical PPE supplies should be produced exclusively in the US going forward
chris
@Another Scott: Hey, no disrespect intended.
I find it interesting that the head of the CDC is a “conservative” Catholic. To me that says that he’ll do whatever it takes, including letting people die, to get the orange godking to ban abortion. Deus vult and all that.
Bill Arnold
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You don’t believe in free enterprise and American innovations in business efficiency, do you?
/snark
Seriously, this is another failing of right-wing ideology with respect to the US response to COVID-19. (Other failures being non-universal, expensive health care (with high deductibles for most who have health insurance), a weak unemployment insurance system, no paid sick leave for many workers, etc.)
Another Scott
@chris: :-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Obvious Russian Troll
@Kent: 10-dimensional chess, my friend. 10-dimensional chess.
You’ll see when the orders come to dump the bodies into the other 7 dimensions.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bill Arnold:
Absolutely. A lot is going to have to change to avoid this happening again
Mike in NC
Putin’s efforts to be named dictator for life appear to be working much better than Fat Bastard’s.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in NC: Putin is competent.
John Revolta
@Adam L Silverman: As we say out in the Breadbasket, “I know that’s right!”
Adam L Silverman
@John Revolta: Give my regards to the Great Patriotic Farmers!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Speaking of Putin, here’s a funny deepfake video of him
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m good, really. Thanks…
bbleh
Maybe I’m missing something, but this looks to me like nothing more than Trump trying to find someone else to blame.
It’s China’s fault. It’s the Chinese Virus. And if we don’t have the medical equipment we need, that’s China’s fault too.
I really don’t think it’s any more complicated than that. He’s not a complicated guy, nor a particularly intelligent one. He’s just trying to set up a scapegoat, to protect himself and his re-election campaign.
(Oh and he doesn’t care at all about the medical consequences for actual people. But that probably goes without saying …)
JaySinWA
I am beginning to think that when we get out of this mess, China may be the only remaining superpower.
Quaker in a Basement
@lumpkin: infinity plus one.
Uncle Cosmo
@Adam L Silverman: Unfamiliar with that JointPub, but if it’s anything like the MIL-SPECs I worked with as a salaried drone for a gummint contractor Wei Bak Wen, it’s likely so overfreighted with multisyllabic words it qualifies as a lethal weapon in 36 states of the Union. So watcherarse! ;^p
Uncle Cosmo
@Adam L Silverman: Without pulling down my Russian dictionary, I’m guessing, sugar beets?
(The tiny hands are a nice touch.)
BobS
@bbleh: The Chinese clearly fucked-up. From what I gather, there was an initial ‘cover-up’ on a local and/or provincial level, as officials (most likely ignorant to the virulence of what they were dealing with) went into CYA mode, which I would suspect is reflexive in authoritarian systems like China. The Chinese national government initially botched some things as well (with respect to travel and large gatherings), but they also sequenced (and shared) the genome pretty quickly.
None of that absolves the Trump administration of it’s abysmal performance since January, when intelligence officials in this country began waving red-flags about the pandemic (in fact, while I’ve been critical of Trump’s decision to dissolve the Obama-created pandemic directorate in the NSC, he would have just ignored them, too).
Now the administration strategy to fight the virus seems to be letting individual states do the heavy lifting while the federal government reminds us we’ve always been at war with EastAsia.
hofeizai
I live with my Chinese in-laws, and they watch tv all day. In general, Trump is portrayed as a corrupt buffoon. I believe the implied message is that this is what Hong Kong protestors are asking for.
News lately is dominated by positive news from China (dropping rates of reported infections, medical staff from other provinces returning from Hubei), a round up of the virus around the world, and a bit on Trump’s jackassery of the day. I would say the message that is being sent is that Americans are a pretty dumb people (lining up for guns, going to the beach) lead by an irresponsible moron who wants to blame China for something that isn’t their fault. The leadership will help, as it is necessary to fight the virus, but people are really pissed off and would like to see something done to America. Seems to work out well for Beijing, as people who are furious with Trump are not mad at Xi.
My 2 jiao
Yoday
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “With friends like that, who needs enemies…?”