China's centralised ability to manage Covid in 2020 has allowed China to gain on the US (a decentralised country unable to manage Covid). Australia?

See http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-05/china-enters-2021-a-stronger-more-influential-power/13006408

plantagenet,

The virus is an engineered biological weapon and for some reason probably by accident got onto the streets of Wuhan and was readily suppressed because the Chinese knew exactly what they were dealing with but before it was mopped up it had found its way out into to wider world via Chinese travelling overseas.

The latest scuttlebutt is that this African strain of the virus is not only far more infectious but is also far more deadly and apparently the lockdown in the UK is because it has just been realised that it is far more deadly than the original.

Hi Mr Opinion

Given how much Covid has benefitted China's relative position compared to the US:

Yes it may be true Covid was engineered in a Chinese laboratory then by accident (or design) Covid leaked out to Wuhan's population. Its presence in Wuhan was hushed up by the CPP:

- until 10,000s of Wuhan Chinese and foreign citizens (in Wuhan) were infected

- with many travelling overseas thus ensuring a mass international infection (Pandemic) by early 2020.

On benefits to China's relative position see the "China's power on an upwards trajectory" sub-heading a quarter way down http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-05/china-enters-2021-a-stronger-more-influential-power/13006408

COVID DIDN'T COME FROM A LABORATORY

After further study I maintain COVID was not made in a Chinese laboratory.

Western and/or Russian intelligence would have discovered any laboratory aspect (they didn't) and would have told the world (that didn't happen).

Some in the Trump Administration, including Trump, floated a Chinese laboratory theory. But the US's very large intelligence community found nothing to back up Trump's claims.

See http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52496098 of 1 May 2020:

"US President Donald Trump has appeared to undercut his own intelligence agencies by suggesting he has seen evidence coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory.

Earlier the US national intelligence director's office said it was still investigating how the virus began.

But the office said it had determined Covid-19 "was NOT MANMADE OR GENETICALLY MODIFIED"."
____________________________

What is critical is the Chinese Government's estimate of:

- China's centralised authoritarian ABILITY to force an effective lockdown to arrest and reduce Covid's spread in China

- Compared to many Western nations' decentralised, libertarian, INABILITY to impose an effective lockdown.

THE US was the most-decentralised, libertarian, country almost guaranteeing the US WOULD BE THE HARDEST HIT.

The country with the most to gain from a virus wreaking the Chinese economy is the United States. At the time of the virus entering the Wuhan population, China was clearly winning the economic war with the US. What country would have the resources and the capacity to develop and deliver such a biological weapon, again the US. BUT, the best laid plans of mice and men, can and do go wrong. The bomb can always blow up in your face.

Look at poor old Bug Ridden Boris in the UK, hasn't got a clue, maybe the virus is his baby.

Hi Paul

Re "China was clearly winning the economic war with the US."

Yes China was gaining on the US but during the time of Covid China's relative growth has accelerated. See http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52496098

"China's power on an upwards trajectory

At the end of 2019, China's GDP stood at US$14.3 trillion. This was two-thirds that of the US GDP of $21.3 trillion.

[Here'as the significant bit] The fallout from COVID-19 has ACCELERATED the trend in China's favour. The International Monetary Fund's latest growth forecasts suggest China's economy will jump from two-thirds to three-quarters the size of the US by the end of 2021.

And when cost differences are accounted for and the two economies are measured in terms of their respective purchasing power, China's GDP is actually already 10 per cent larger than the US.

According to the Lowy Institute's Asia Power Index, which tracks power in the economic, military, diplomatic and cultural domains, the US still comes out on top, but its lead over China has been cut in half since 2018. This mainly reflected losses by the US rather than gains by China.

...The past year has also delivered dividends for China's leaders domestically, with most citizens giving them HIGH MARKS for their handling of the public health crisis, despite some initial anger of the Government's early attempts to cover up the severity of the pandemic.

This reinforces already high levels of overall trust in the central government.

The contrast with the US in this regard is stark. In May, a cross-country survey revealed that 95 per cent of Chinese respondents had trust in their government, compared with JUST 48 per cent in the US."

Pete