[captain_crabs]

If real information about China were to leak out, my guess is it would happen through the vector of internet/social media. Chances are, some other source would need to copy + repost it before being taken down. This is what I looked for.

One such account which is purportedly doing this is https://twitter.com/truthabtchina. To summarize this, among other rumors:

    - lots more people have died that communicated (there's an estimate of ~22m due to missing cell phone contracts)
    - riots are happening between regions where lockdown occurred, and regions next to them)
    - lockdown isn't practically over in areas where resurgence of infection is happening (pending other containment approaches)

edit: I've eaten dinner with some friends from China in the past month before lockdown started, and am in frequent contact with people traveling throughout SEA. I was trying to provide and summarize a potential semi-primary source. Added some more specific #'s, info, and removed inflammatory words. Sorry - I wasn't trying to be fear-mongery. However, I am trying to accurately reflect a harsher reality

I do think it's quite reasonable to assume some areas of China are getting back to normal.

I also think it's quite unreasonable to assume info _isn't_ being censored and controlled, especially post journalist-eviction.

[baron_harkonnen]

Do people on HN really have no friends/connections in China? People post comments like this as if it's some mysterious information black hole where we can never know what's really happening.

I communicate pretty often with people living in China and with family and living in China. Things, even close to Wuhan, are returning to normal. People are going out, eating out, socializing more.

From all of the everyday people reporting there is no obvious or visible things not being reported. By and large people in China are primarily worried about America right now.

It wouldn't shock me if there was some important information not being reported, but this conspiratorial "If real information where to leak out" is nonsense since you can very easy interact and talk with actual people living in China.

[smacktoward]

There is also the willingness of Chinese companies and individuals to ship PPE gear to the US. If the government there were really still in crisis mode, you would expect it to clamp down hard on that sort of thing.

[captain_crabs]

This is a pretty good point. However, there's also the chance that they can't use the gear and that's why they're sending it: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=virus+t...

However, could be this was a one-off genuine mistake (things are hectic). I'd love to know more