In talking with European officials over the past week, I have not found them to be particularly impressed with China's role. Of course they will issue thanks for shipments of aid but they know the CCP is at least partly responsible for letting this get out of control...1/4
...and they know that its refusal to be transparent will prohibit deep cooperation in the future. I have not found anyone in the EU or NATO who has said China is supplanting the US. Perhaps public opinion will weigh in behind China but there is no data on that yet. 2/4
Europeans aren't thinking about the US much. They didn't really care about the travel ban b/c no one was traveling. They resent Trump's criticism but expect it. Their takeaway is that the US, along with Brazil, is an example of the failure of populism to deal w/ this crisis 3/4
My hunch is that Europeans & people the world over will neither forget nor forgive anyone who made this crisis worse than it had to be for them. China will be held to account for its actions early on as will others for the mistakes they make. 4/4
