$PDD is up 12% today. $BABA is barely up by 0.5%. $BIDU is up 1.37%.

All on news of civil unrest rising throughout China? By the way, the civil unrest activities by anti-lockdown protestors throughout China are at an unprecedented level and these protests have the potential to reach the level that Mahsa Amini protestors in Iran currently have.

Meanwhile, China is looking to drastically expand its medical infrastructure. Most likely along the coast because of population density.

Chinese equity bulls now have two new bearish realities to deal with:

Besides the hoarding of resources and talks with banks on protecting assets from sanctions, talks of a drastic expansion of medical infrastructure in China should also raise alarm bells among the international community. But because the context of the expansion is COVID, the international community isn't being critical about it.

Looking back at Russia's preparations for the invasion of Ukraine, throughout 2021, we originally saw the transportation of armor along the Ukrainian border to be a warning sign that Russia could invade Ukraine. But after we saw field hospitals being built along the Ukrainian border, we knew then and there that Russia will invade Ukraine. The field hospitals signaled seriousness in a country's invasion plans because no one would build field hospitals during a military exercise.

Now imagine if China didn't have a COVID issue and randomly started building tons of hospitals along the coastal cities. That would raise alarm bells that China is preparing for war with Taiwan (already, there are many signs that China has intent on invading Taiwan but without the medical infrastructure aspect, the media isn't taking the signs seriously). It wouldn't make sense that a country with no internal health issues would randomly focus on expanding its medical infrastructure.

And consider the scenario of Russia drastically expanding its medical infrastructure in the Western portion of its country. Rather than build field hospitals, it just built many more hospitals in the Western portion of its land. No COVID or other epidemic issues.

In that scenario, the entire Europe would be worried and think that Russia is preparing for a massive war with Eastern Europe. No field hospitals along the Ukrainian border. Just simply a drastic expansion of medical infrastructure in the Western areas of its territory. Already it raises alarm bells among the international community.

Thanks to Zero COVID, the world continues to think that China has a severe COVID issue and chooses to focus on that issue rather than the numerous activities happening under Zero COVID (like the massive buildup along the Fujian Province, hoarding of resources, and government officials demanding businesses to produce items for the PLA). Since Taiwan and China are separated by water and not land, China can't simply set up field hospitals because (1) it would look obvious that they're preparing for war and (2) there's a body of water separating the two.

As for the concern about the protests intensifying, my question to Chinese equity bulls would be: "let's say you held investments in Iran before the Mahsa Amini protests, would you still hold onto those investments throughout the protests knowing that these protests could turn into a civil war at any time?"

And I have another question for Chinese equity bulls: "if you held onto Russian equities before Russia started sending troops along the Ukrainian border, as you witnessed the continuous buildup of Russian forces and field hospitals along the Ukrainian border, would you have sold your Russian equities or kept holding them knowing that Russia is serious about invading Ukraine?"

These two questions relate to the two new bear cases being present on Chinese equities. If you're a Chinese equities bull, let me know your answers.

Meanwhile, I still think that China is "the big short" of this century and I don't trust anything that authoritarians say about how they want to improve their economy. Better to avoid investing in authoritarian-run nations knowing that they will endure the same fate as Russia than risk investing in them while carrying the false sense that China is different from Russia.