China and Coronavirus: From Home-Made Disaster to Global Mega-Opportunity

Despite an initially horrendous response to the coronavirus, covering up initial warning signs, suppressing information about it, and allowing some five million people to leave Wuhan in a rush before the scale of the problem was understood, Beijing has apparently gotten a hold on the epidemically domestically. (It remains to be seen whether the epidemic will come back, in serious numbers, in China as Beijing relaxes the medieval quarantine conditions it imposed in much of the country.) And now, with many European and North American states struggling to contain their outbreaks, amidst a sea of their own misinformation and initial fumbles, China is touting its coronavirus approach and using its approach to build global soft power. For more on how Beijing is utilizing its coronavirus response to boost its global soft power, see my new article in the Globalist.