Re:Giant Panda no longer an endangered species
by dspillett on Monday September 05, 2016 @01:52PM
(#12431439)
> loath to reverse these beliefs, as it would mean investing a lot more money in real western medicine
And more generally it could raise "what else that the government has been assuring us for the last X decades might also be wrong?" thoughts in the potentially-cynical-but-not-yet-actively-so amongst the general population.
Re:Giant Panda no longer an endangered species
by dmix on Monday September 05, 2016 @02:55PM
(#12431731)
Meh, they could spin it how ever they want. They're masters at that.
The Chinese government has stopped harmful Chinese traditions on a number occasions without significant backlash. Especially anything that challenged their control. Just look at the suppression of religions, ethnic cultures, and many other traditions throughout China:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/3948-commentary-6-on-how-the...
The Chinese government is loath to reverse these beliefs, as it would mean investing a lot more money in real western medicine. In fact, Mao originally put forth TCM as a distraction from a serious lack of real medical resources in the 50s, from wiki:
In 1950, Chairman Mao Zedong made a speech in support of traditional Chinese medicine which was influenced by political necessity.[11] Zedong believed he and the Chinese Communist Party should promote traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) but he did not personally believe in TCM and he didn't use it.[11] In 1952, the president of the Chinese Medical Association said that, "This One Medicine, will possess a basis in modern natural sciences, will have absorbed the ancient and the new, the Chinese and the foreign, all medical achievements—and will be China’s New Medicine!"[11]
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine