China has a big but brief chance right now to speed its way to global leadership
-Covid-19 has revealed more clearly than ever before the nature and relentlessness of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s ambition to place itself at the center of global power and influence.
-The virus first appeared to be a dramatic setback for China, given its role as the pathogen’s source and epicenter in January and February.
-With China’s likely emergence now as the first major world economy to end lockdowns and regain growth, Covid-19 now offers a once-in-a-century chance to accelerate the geopolitical shift in Beijing’s favor through 2020 and far beyond.
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed more clearly than ever before the nature and relentlessness of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s ambition to place itself at the center of global power and influence.
What once was an opaque policy, articulated by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, of “hide your strength, bide your time,” has now morphed into the transparent, if still unstated, approach by President Xi Jinping of “seizing the Covid-19 moment” – before it closes.
The virus first appeared to be a dramatic setback for China, given its role as the pathogen’s source and epicenter in January and February. With China’s likely emergence now as the first major world economy to end lockdowns and regain growth, Covid-19 now offers a once-in-a-century chance to accelerate the geopolitical shift in Beijing’s favor through 2020 and far beyond.
That said, Chinese leaders are moving at a pace that reveals not only their ambitions but also their apprehensions that this historic moment could close as quickly as it opened.
“The party’s leaders believe they have a narrow window of strategic opportunity to strengthen their rule and revise the international order in their favor,” writes Lt. Gen. (ret.) H.R. McMaster, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, in his just-released book “Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World.”
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Πηγή: cnbc.com
