The United States became the first economic and political hyper-power after World War 2 laid waste to other nations. China aims to use the coronavirus to make the same ascension. The CCP will use all of its influence to keep the rest of the world locked down as long as possible.
However it began, the pandemic has become a unique opportunity for fascism, the correct term for the system China uses. Fascists calculate they can inflict far more pain on their populations to achieve national objectives. They don't have to worry about disgruntled voters.
Bureaucratic stagnation is one of the weaknesses of fascism, but the coronavirus is spreading bureaucracy and stagnation through free countries with astonishing speed. Odds are we'll emerge from this with a bigger government, smaller private sector, less freedom to innovate.
In other words, there are powerful forces in American politics whose agenda, should they win in 2020, will make America much more like China, but only in the worst ways. A muddled mixture of fascism and democracy won't stand a chance against straight-up hyper-nationalist fascism.
China has a few months' head start on relaunching its economy after the pandemic. The CCP will sicken and kill as many of its own people as needed to keep that recovery on a smooth trajectory while the rest of the word is sick and fearful. CCP information ops will nourish chaos.
It's no coincidence that China is becoming noticeably more aggressive in military provocations and imperialist politics while the coronavirus pandemic rages. This is their once-in-a-lifetime chance to reshuffle the strategic deck, advance their goals, and spread their ideology.
One reason the CCP is so eager to spread its ideology is that it believes other countries will be fatally poisoned by adopting it partially, whereas only the Chinese are culturally and politically capable of implementing it correctly.
China would be the undisputed fascist superpower for a century to come, and perhaps longer. They were floundering in many ways before the coronavirus - signs of political and economic weakness were obvious. The pandemic would have utterly doomed them if they didn't export it.
But they DID export it successfully, and now the pandemic is a weapon they believe will hurt everyone far more than it hurt China. They're on the offensive in every respect, in every theater, without the slightest hesitation. The only thing that worries them is investigations.
The CCP is confident, and not without reason, it can keep the truth about Wuhan bottled up forever. It's mildly worried about losing control of organizations like WHO, or seeing the effectiveness of those organizations diluted, but the CCP has a decent chance of managing that.
The battle for human freedom that began in earnest with WW2 may end a century later with fascism triumphant after all, controlling and dominating well over half of the world's population and wrapping ideological tentacles around major parties in the free world. /end
