Why China might emerge stronger after Covid-19

Contrary to cries of a "China doomed" by the anti-Communist Party crowds, China could play an important role in the post-Covid-19 pandemic world as it did in the post-2008 financial crisis period. Reckless financial reforms and management in the US wreaked havoc on the global economy, causing Chinese economic growth to plunge from more than 10% to 6.5%, reducing the world economy from 4.3% to 1.8% and sinking the largest developed economies into a deep recession in 2008, according to the World Bank.

In response, the Chinese government quickly mounted a huge stimulus package of more than US$580 billion, or almost 14% of its GDP. Spending the money largely on infrastructure construction, environmental projects and other employment-creation projects, the massive package helped China reverse the economic downturn, from 6.5% in 2008 to 9.2% in 2009.

The Chinese stimulus not only put its own economy on an upward trajectory, but also that of the world, particularly those of resource-based economies. Buying large quantities of resources from and investing in countries around the world accelerated economic development in emerging markets such as Brazil and prevented Australia from falling into a recession.

Since then, China has contributed to more than 30% of global economic growth since 2009, according to the World Bank and other organizations' statistics.

China might again be the world's engine of economic growth, partly in light of its successful containment of the Covid-19 pandemic because the "draconian" or "illiberal" - as some Western critics termed them - measures afforded it an early start to reopening the economy.

April economic indicators released by the China National Bureau of Statistics showed industrial production rose by more than 11% and exports increased by over 3%, just to name a couple of key figures. The retail trade declined by more than 16% in the same period because of business shutdowns.

However, shops, malls and other retail businesses are starting to reopen, giving rise to the expectation that the economy could enjoy a sharp rise in private consumption in the months to come. Indeed, consumer and investor confidence might be increasing in light of the more than 830,000 new businesses entering the market in April, as reported by the Global Times and other Chinese state news media.

As its economy is inching towards full recovery, China could buy large quantities of imports, thereby helping the global economic recovery as it did in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Then there is China's Belt and Road Initiative. The British Broadcasting Corporation's prediction that Covid-19 would derail the BRI in 2020 might be wrong again - the BBC and other Western news media have been predicting China's economic demise for more than 40 years - because it is still "kicking."

Two-way trade of more than $6.5 trillion between China and the participating countries rose by over 3% in the four months of 2020, according to the China General Customs Commission. Turkey, Nigeria and other countries recently signed new BRI investment projects, while existing ones such as the Kunming to Laos project are humming along.

Because of the proven economic benefits the BRI has brought, it would not be a surprise if more countries, including staunch US allies, join the Chinese globalization initiative in the years ahead. The BBC, and other Western news outlets, should be more concerned with the British economy.

The West, on the other hand, is still struggling to "flatten the curve" or reduce the number of people infected or who have died from Covid-19. Not heeding China's January 3 warning about the danger of Covid-19 hit the US, UK, Italy, France and Spain hard, respectively accounting for the majority of the more than 4 million infected and 300,000 killed around the world so far.

Instead of taking responsibility for its policy failures and incompetence, the West, the US in particular, has blamed China.

The Trump administration seems to be intensifying its "blame China" game, using it as the "cornerstone of its presidential campaign." The Republican Party was reported to have issued a 57-page campaign strategy of blaming China for not only Covid-19, but everything under the sun.

Yahoo News reported that the Pentagon hired defense contractor Sierra Nevada to produce an "intelligence" report that was supposed to support senior US officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's claims that the virus was incubated in and released by the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

However, the Daily Beast revealed that the "evidence" is "provably false," suggesting that the authors were inventing "fake evidence" and spinning it to make it look "real."

The problem of blaming China with "subjective if not fake information" is it could exacerbate the US' and the West's economic and health issues. The stance not only hinders cooperation in finding an effective vaccine for stopping Covid-19, but could plunge the US and China into "Cold War Two."