China Using Covid to Overtake America's Economy by Gordon G. Chang  •  December 30, 2020 at 5:00 am       China's economy is worse than it appears, and its vaccines, needed for a full recovery, are still in development, far behind America's. In the meantime, Beijing's response to the coronavirus, which includes the smearing of America, is resulting in China losing friends worldwide. Government stimulus is powering much of the current growth as are net exports. Yet the current "flood of defaults" in China points to widespread weakness. Beijing's spending spree, therefore, is not sustainable, even with the help of foreign investment. Ultimately, the economy will recover only when China has an effective and safe vaccine. Although the Chinese have had months of head start, they are far behind America. China is fast losing support in capitals around the world. It is not hard to figure out why. Chinese ruler Xi Jinping deliberately spread the virus beyond China's borders — by lying about the transmissibility of the disease and, while locking down Wuhan, forcing countries to take arrivals from China — and others are now starting to understand the maliciousness of the Communist Party. Moreover, they are learning about its venality. For instance, China this spring sold Italy medical protective gear that Italians had donated to Beijing a few weeks earlier. China's economy is worse than it appears, and its vaccines, needed for a full recovery, are still in development, far behind America's. In the meantime, Beijing's response to the coronavirus, which includes the smearing of America, is resulting in China losing friends worldwide. (Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images) The U.K.-based Centre for Economics and Business Research believes that, due to China's superior response to COVID-19, the Chinese economy will become the world's largest by 2028, five years earlier than previously forecast. "For some time, an overarching theme of global economics has been the economic and soft power struggle between the United States and China," the Centre wrote in a December 26 report. "The COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding economic fallout have certainly tipped this rivalry in China's favor." No, it has not. In fact, the opposite looks to be true. The Centre's prediction, which mimics one of Beijing's narratives, is more than just premature. It is based on fundamentally wrong assumptions. Continue Reading Article