Is the Chinese Communist Party inflicting a new century of humiliation for newly prosperous* China?
I don't believe China didn't start out with the intent to infect the world with the Xi Jinping Flu. But once it escaped their lab, through incompetence or a goal of not suffering alone, the result was that Covid-19 became a pandemic.
As most of the world learns to live with Covid-19, China is tethering itself to eliminating the virus over the long term -- an approach that risks leaving the world’s second-biggest economy isolated for years to come.
The Chinese Communist Party may be enabling "decoupling" from China, which many countries are now aiming for in their trade policies. Australia highlights a trend accelerated by China's policy that will harm China:
Australian special envoy and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a free trade agreement between his nation and India would signal the "democratic world’s tilt away from China."
I think many of our pandemic policy cures have been worse than the virus. China will easily fall in that category unless they have a bout of reasonably enlightened leadership.
*Well, let's qualify that generalization:
China's rise is uneven and a problem for the rulers should be peasants truly become revolting: "China has surged by creating a vast and significant economy. The majority of society not part of the coastal elite that manages international trade, banking and investment, or that is part of the military-industrial structure, live lives at least comparable to their equivalents in the United States. The large majority in the interior of the country lead lives on the order of Equatorial Guinea. Few Americans live lives on that order, although undoubtedly some can be found." Despite the military threat China poses to our interests around its periphery, China in many ways is a Third World country. Upper Volta with nuclear rockets and computers, I suppose.
