[guardiangod]

Look I know this is dumb and all. Other Chinese relatives/friends (usually oversea) are trying to combat all these fake news. But 2 things-

1. WeChat is heavily patrolled and monitored by the PRC censors. If the PRC doesn't want these rumors to circulate, these rumors would not last more than a hour (or seconds. It's very enlightening to see the sensitive terms get filtered in real time.)

In fact, in the last week or so, I've been getting more conspiracy forwards. The spread of rumors on this topic on WeChat is speeding up.

2. I don't see US' Secretary of State accusing China of intentionally creating the virus.

[knzhou]

> If the PRC doesn't want these rumors to circulate, these rumors would not last more than a hour

Reddit tries to stop conspiracy theories with quarantines and bans. But they're rapidly spreading anyway.

> 2. I don't see US' Secretary of State accusing China of intentionally creating the virus.

It really is symmetric: Tom Cotton, Senator from Arkansas, has been on Fox saying exactly this.

Fox also has other people on saying it was a joint North Korean and Chinese bioweapon, made solely to attack America, but released initially in China as a decoy. Fox is the most watched cable news channel in America.

[taiwanboy]

Disingenuous comparison. Ministers of foreign affairs in China is similar to Secretary of State in US. A senator is nowhere near equivalent.

[roywiggins]

In an ordinary US government, that's true.

But in the current one, who gets on Fox seems to be a more reliable indicator of the thinking of the ruling clique than official pronouncements. Stuff that gets repeated on Fox enough tends to end up coming out of the President's mouth eventually. Official pronouncements from Secretaries of Suchandsuch get countermanded by tweet. One of the President's closest advisors broadcasts on Fox nightly.

"Blame China" is a simple message and it would not be rational to think it is not going to be tweet-official policy soon enough.

[knzhou]

Senators are within the top 100 most powerful people in the US. They represent millions of people.

I think you're just grasping at straws because you've already decided what narrative you want. In which case there's nothing more for me to say here.

[seanmcdirmid]

Senators are from the legislative branch and have no executive power, however. Their power stems from what they can vote on, eg what justices they can confirm. China for all effective purposes lacks an independent judicial or legislative branch, so it is difficult to compare the two governments.

[masonic]

  Senators are within the top 100 most powerful people in the US. 

Since there are exactly 100 Senators, you place every Senator over the President, the Speaker of the House, House party leaders, and all Supreme Court justices. And Oprah.

[knzhou]

Okay, whatever, 150. This is an order of magnitude thing.