While the world economy suffers as a result of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), China, the country where the disease originated, grew by 2.3% in 2020.
Paradoxically, China became the only major world economy to record expansion in the year of the pandemic; this while the United States, Europe and Japan were struggling with outbreaks of the “Chinese virus.”
“The growth in the three months ending in December rose to 6.5% with respect to the previous year, above the 4.9% of the previous quarter,” official data of the Chinese National Statistics Office (NSO) showed.
The statement highlights that the “national economy recovered in a sustained manner, employment and living standards were firmly consolidated and the main objectives and tasks of economic and social development were achieved better than expected.”
According to a Fox News report, the growth was fueled by global demand for masks and other medical supplies manufactured in China.”Exports increased by 3.6 percent last year despite a tariff war with Washington. Exporters took market share from foreign competitors who still faced anti-virus restrictions,” he says.
The IMF and private sector forecasters expect economic growth to increase even more this year, above 8%.
The Chinese regime denied entry to the team made up of two scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO) whose aim was to investigate the origins of COVID-19. Being the nation where the disease originated, they still have not delivered reports that reveal the origin of the virus, and the Chinese regime refuses to cooperate with international organizations.
While China was growing and the world economy was falling to historic levels, the Communist Party of China (CCP) provided late and erroneous information about the virus and its origins, thus preventing a timely response from the international community to the pandemic.
China could soon surpass America
A Bloomberg news agency report revealed that China will take over the United States and become the world’s largest economy in less than a decade.
Homi Kharas, deputy director of the development and global economy program at Brookings Research Center (USA), told the agency that China will become the world’s largest economy by 2028. That is, two years faster than the specialist had previously estimated.
The COVID-19 pandemic could help China “solidify its position in the global economy,” said Ka Zeng, director of Asian studies at the University of Arkansas.
Kharas added that European and American companies are likely to turn to China because of the country’s potential to be “the only major source of growth in the post-pandemic world.
“We have seen wave after wave of the pandemic hitting different markets. And really, the only market where we have seen a continued trajectory in terms of handling the virus has been China,” Nike CFO Matthew Friend said in the middle.
Coincidence?
As China’s economy boomed, there were also strong arguments as to why the communist state represents the number one security threat to the United States.
“If I could communicate one thing to the American people from this unique vantage point, it is that the People’s Republic of China represents the greatest threat to the United States today and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom around the world since World War II,” wrote John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence in an article published by The Wall Street Journal.
“Beijing intends to dominate the United States and the rest of the planet economically, militarily, and technologically,” he continued. “Many of China’s major public initiatives and outstanding enterprises provide only a cloak for the activities of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Meanwhile, Global Security expert Joseph Humire explained in a recent interview with El American: “China, which is the number two power in the world, is the one that wants to make sure that the U.S. no longer exists in order to occupy that number one position and change the international system in its favor. China is advancing in all aspects, in politics, economics and the military.”
What will Biden do?
China-US relations are at an all-time low after Trump’s disputes with Beijing over issues ranging from trade to Hong Kong and the pandemic. It remains to be seen what will happen to the strained relationship when Joe Biden assumes the presidency of the United States.
Adam Ni, director of the China Policy Centre, told the AFP news agency that Biden could combine Trump’s and Obama’s strategies to confront China.
“Trump adopted a very aggressive policy with China, trying to put pressure on her on all fronts … With Biden I think we will have a more calculated approach and focus not just on the one-time attack, but on long-term considerations,” he said.
Humire, meanwhile, predicts that when Biden takes the presidency he will have to create a good strategy to prevent China from advancing in its intention to expand in Latin America. “If the government doesn’t exert pressure, they will find the best way to attack the United States,” he said.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo
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