Thread by @CoronavirusCast

Admitting it is circumstantial, and skipping the potentially relevant question of what China knew, when, and the origins of #COVID19 which could strengthen this case, let's look how China has acted since the pandemic blossomed in January. This case suggests an asymmetric war. 1/n

One smart thing the CCP did early was to secure monopolies on key supplies in both pharmaceuticals and API (ingredients) for the medical response as a virtual monopoly by state subsidized investment and preying on Western corporate greed.

washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/… 2/n

Many sources realized it far earlier than them from the incinerators in Wuhan, the burial urns, the cancelled phones, the sulfur concentration, but the CIA has now publicly admitted the CCP numbers about Wuhan are wrong.

nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/… 3/n

China, since February, as made clear by all the Chinese who suddenly have access to Twitter in the midst of a lockdown, sees themselves as helpful to others in providing masks and leadership, even as their own people are shut down and journalists locked out. 4/n

This piece from Hong Kong attacks Trump for his admittedly deficient response to the #coronavirus while deftly exonerating China and presenting it as better now that we are supposed to look past all their lies.

scmp.com/comment/opinio… 5/n

Weaponizing foreign academia as we see in the previous article to the case of Charles Lieber fits in the broader "Three Warfare" strategy of the CCP to prepare for total war through controlling public opinion, psychological, and legal outcomes.

warontherocks.com/2018/01/chinas… 6/n

Here's an example of how China has swiftly and deeply moved into propagandizing the West helping to exploit the geopolitical opportunity to cleft Europe from America through a combination of optimism and material support complete with 24 hour tv.

theguardian.com/world/2020/apr… 7/n

Analysts question China's commitment to the Belt and Road initiative designed to push hegemony into the bigger land mass on financial terms, but China affirms public commitment to help, purchasing influence as America shrinks back.

asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Belt… 8/n

For all the conspiracies about 5G, too few consider the question of who controls the information will have an immense advantage at shaping and hearing what the world thinks, as China branded this commerce while the US called it security. China won.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… 9/n

But while the CCP likes to present itself as heroes, they continue strafing Taiwan with fighter planes during this pandemic and deny them access to the WHO leveraging their force and wealth maliciously against their neighbor.

nypost.com/2020/04/01/why… 10/n

As America becomes heavily hit, with cases having come back as early as Wuhan in January, and we see Latin America dissemble, could one imagine a better opportunity for China to both make new friends in Europe, expand influence in Asia, and remake the world order? 11/n

Now we see not just one, but two American carriers in retreat in the Roosevelt and the Reagan with China into recovery, so people have to wonder if an opportunity this good was an accident?

cnn.com/2020/04/02/pol… 12/n

Clausewitz remarked war was politics by other means, but the Chinese who long understood the value of culture, may have recognized politics as war by other means, and in this pandemic where so many worldwide are losing, it is curious the CCP stands to come out such winners. 13/n

We can and we should blame the West generally and America specifically for many failures. But these were predictable, as myself and others who watched saw, knew, and tried to prevent. But we have to ask if others knew the same, and used it to their advantage. Did China? 14/n