Mechanical Freak Presents... Learning About China

ByMatthew Van Duyn, Brian Platt

While we can’t exactly footnote an episode, we can offer you a bibliography of all the books and articles we touch on in the episode. To the best of our ability, these references are organized by topic and by when they are touched on in the show. So, without further ado, the freaks present to you:

Intro Music

XXXTENTACION - Moonlight

Characteristics of Wuhan

"From One-Time Chinese Capital to Coronavirus Epicenter, Wuhan has a Long History that the West had Forgotten," CNN, 2/23/2020

China's Market Reforms

Barry Naughton, The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth (2006)

William Hinton, The Great Reversal (1989)

David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005)

"China Cracks the ‘Iron Rice Bowl," Washington Post, 12/30/1982

Coronavirus in Wuhan

CGTV, "Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan," 2/28/2020

Chinese Markets

"China’s Omnivorous Markets are in the Eye of a Lethal Outbreak," New York Times, 1/25/2020

"Pinning Coronavirus on How Chinese People Eat Plays into Racist Assumptions," Eater, 1/31/2020

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

SARS Outbreak in China

Mike Davis, The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu (2005)

Dr. Li Wenliang

"UPDATE: China Releases Investigation Report on Issues Concerning Dr. Li Wenliang," Xinhua, 3/19/2020

Aminda Smith, "Of Martyrs and Maladies: Some Thoughts on Coronavirus," Positions, 2/21/2020

KJ Noh, "Yellow-Caking and Epidemic: New York Times Spreads the Virus of Hatred, Again," Monthly Review Online, 3/5/2020

Andrew Green, "Obituary: Li Wenliang30382-2/fulltext)," The Lancet, 2/18/2020

Treatment of Coronavirus in China

Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), 2/24/2020

"China Took at Least 12 Strict Measures to Control the Coronavirus. They Could Work for the US, but Would Likely be Impossible to Implement," Business Insider, 3/24/2020

Carlos Martinez, "Karl Marx in Wuhan: How Chinese Socialism is Defeating COVID-19," Invent the Future, 3/25/2020

"Coronavirus – Anti-China Propaganda Brings Catastrophe to the West," China Daily, 3/16/2020

"Social Contagion: Microbiological Class War in China," Chuang Collective, 2/2020

Healthcare and Social Security in China

China’s Social Security System,” China Labor Bulletin, 10/15/2019

Vikki Valentine, “Health for the Masses: China’s Barefoot Doctors,” NPR, 11/4/2005

American Teenager with Covid-19 Denied Treatment

Teen Who Died of Covid-19 was Denied Treatment Because He Didn’t Have Health Insurance,” Gizmodo, 3/27/2020

Everybody Disappoints Their Dad, the David Leonhardt Story

"Bob Leonhardt, Communist Thinker and Fighter," CHALLENGE, 4/22/2016

David Leonhardt, “Stimulus Thinking and Nuance,” New York Times, 4/1/2009

State Investment in China and the Chinese Economy Post-2008 Recession

John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney, “The Global Stagnation and China,” Monthly Review Online, 2/1/2012

Barry Naughton, “Understanding the Chinese Stimulus Package,” China Leadership Monitor, No. 28 Spring 2008

Chris Weller, Robert Johnson, and Vivian Gang, “30 Giant Infrastructure Projects that are Reshaping the World,” Business Insider, 6/20/2020

Huang Wanyi, “Infrastructure Projects to Boost China’s Economy,” Asia Times, 3/10/2020

US Passes China in Covid-19 Cases*

"US Surpasses China in Cases of Coronavirus," NPR, 3/26/2020

"US Becomes First Country to Report 100,000 Confirmed Coronavirus Cases," Washington Post, 3/27/2020

*This episode was recorded on March 27th, five days later it was reported that the US had double the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases as China and the US death toll had surpassed China as well. “US Death Toll from Coronavirus Exceeds China,” Aljazeera, 3/31/2020

China's Freeze on International Travel

To Slow Virus, China Bars Entry by Almost All Foreigners,” New York Times, 3/26/2020

US Criticism of China's Handling of Crisis

David Leonhardt, "Chairman Mao and Coronavirus", New York Times, 2/7/2020

Nicholas Kristof, "Coronavirus Spreads, and the World Pays for China’s Dictatorship", New York Times, 1/9/2020

Marc Thiessen, "China Should Forever be Linked to the Virus’s Spread", Washington Post, 3/18/2020

CNN Democratic Primary Debate, Transcript, 3/15/2020

"Coronavirus Alarm Blends Yellow Peril and Red Scare", FAIR, 3/6/2020

US Sanctions Against Iran and Venezuela

"US Sanctions on Iran are Increasing Coronavirus Deaths", In These Times, 3/17/2020

"Media Struggle to Defend Washington’s Cruelty Toward Venezuela and Iran as Coronavirus Spreads", FAIR, 3/25/2020

Creating KPOP as a Way to Bring in Foreign Reserves

How a Financial Crisis Created K-Pop,” The Daily Fox, 3/12/2019

Conspiracy Theories East and West

"Blame Game Escalates Between US and China Over Coronavirus Disinformation", CNN, 3/25/2020

"Chinese Officials Blame US Army for Coronavirus", The Scientist, 3/13/2020

"Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory on Virus’s Origins", New York Times, 2/17/2020

Bruce Cumings on North Korea

Bruce Cumings, North Korea: Another Country (2004)

Xi Jinping Thought

Little Yellow Book: Quotations from Chairman Xi Dada (2019)

Closing Poem

Ruo Shuiying (Original name, Long Qiaoling a frontline nurse in Wuhan): “Please do not Disturb

Please allow me to remove my protective gear and mask
To separate my flesh from the armor
Let me lean my body down
Let me breathe quietly
Ah….
The slogans are yours
The praise is yours
The propaganda, the model workers, all are yours
I am just fulfilling my duties
Acting on a healer’s conscience
Often, we go bare-skinned into battle
No time to choose between life and death
Truly no high and mighty thoughts
Please don’t give me a wreath
Don’t give me applause....
Media, reporters
Please don’t bother me
The so-called truth, the numbers
I don’t have time or heart to follow
I’m exhausted day and night
To rest, to sleep
Is more important than your praises
If you can, please go and see
Those ruined homes
Is smoke rising from their hearths?
Those scattered phones in the crematorium
Have they found their owners?'