China thinks the pandemic will make it the world's new leader. It won't.

[Zorro]

While many countries hunker down and focus on domestic coronavirus problems, China is looking outward. Now that it seems to have stemmed the most rampant transmission and has begun reopening cities and factories, it is advertising its approach to the virus: intensive testing and tracing, as well as strict isolation measures. It brags (via state media and diplomats) about its low daily case numbers — many from people coming into the country — while the United States reports some 25,000 new infections daily and has more than 93,000 dead. Beijing is offering concessionary loans to countries like Sri Lanka with battered economies. It is handing out aid and sending masks and medical experts, both to wealthy democracies (like Spain and Italy) and neighbors (like the Philippines and Malaysia), sometimes along the same transport routes that Beijing was already building to connect the globe. China’s leaders have branded these routes as the “Health Silk Road,” linking them to its massive global Belt and Road Initiative, the centerpiece of Chinese foreign policy today.

Meanwhile, Chinese leaders are at pains to demonstrate their engagement with international organizations, creating a contrast with the United States, which has blasted the World Health Organization and threatened to cut off funding for it, and declined to participate in a high-level global summit on joint efforts to develop a vaccine. Chinese President Xi Jinping is calling many other world leaders to chat about pandemic cooperation; he also has held talks with the Group of 20, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the African Union. Chinese diplomats have used op-eds and press statements to highlight appreciation for their country’s assistance, such as the extravagant praise from Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Beijing recently announced that it would send $2 billion to the WHO to combat the coronavirus, and officials said that if Chinese scientists discovered a vaccine, Beijing would share it with all countries.

Beijing sees the crisis as a chance to acquire more global leadership just as the United States abdicates it, a notion that worries some observers. In some ways, this could be good: Beijing has played a relatively positive role on climate change, for instance. But in many areas, like Internet governance, China is seeking to promote a closed, authoritarian model, one that could help keep repressive regimes in power. And a more powerful Beijing might further dominate its neighbors, making parts of Southeast Asia a potential U.S.-China flash point.

Yet China’s effort to use the virus to gain more global power is likely to yield mixed results, at best. In many countries, its sales pitch is failing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/china-uses-the-pandemic-to-claim-global-leadership/2020/05/21/9b045692-9ab4-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html

I think China is on the way to replacing the USA as the dominant international political force in the 21st century; Trump and the Republicans have ceded that position due to this administration's absolute incompetence and unreliability as a global partner.

What rational foreign government would willingly follow Trump as an international policy leader? He's already insulted many of our traditional allies, and embraced authoritarian governments who once we considered adversaries.

[kimbutgar]

1. A friend of mine who is from China but naturalized as an American citizen moved back to

China earlier this year because she said America is screwed until we get rid of mf45. Everyone in her family over on China think America is a joke now and China will be the world leader replacing the US.

[LymphocyteLover]

2. I suspected this was their plan

Not saying it was a bioweapon attack, but they let it spread to the world while they protected their own people. Then they were poised to exploit the rest of the world being weakened. Normally the US could've dealt with this better but of course the Chinese played Trump perfectly the virus hit us hard because of Trump's idiocy.