He has the priorities correct. Nothing fruitful will come from badgering China about COVID (and there's no real evidence it came from a Chinese lab, anyways). It's better to focus on cooperation in serious matters that affect everyone, than to beat a dead horse.
China is an country so ancient, it's earliest history talks about the
restoration of the country. It's ways of doing things are set regardless of ideologies. I don't think China has ever had real cooperation with anyone. Until the West came in the 19th Century, China had always been the supreme power, with all others as enemies or vassals. They may be "communist" now, but how they do things hints that maybe the old way of seeing the world has never truly ended. China does not seek cooperation: it seeks vassals.
The West needs to keep this in mind. We're seen this with Chinese influence in foreign business affairs, an yes, with the virus that surfaced in Wuhan. That's interesting in itself, and not just the origin. Every other strain of virus tends to be named after it's place of origin or discovery. Look up the names of strains of influenza virus for an example. But not the virus from Wuhan. No, that we call COVID-19. Normal naming practices were suddenly "racist" in China's case, or so it's claimed. It was most instructive how quickly the West capitulated. Most instructive, indeed. Sort of like watching an old Soviet May Day parade and seeing who is or isn't on the review stand. China already wields far more power in the West than I think we realize.
That makes current courses of action in the US, all of which is weaken the country, all the more interesting. It doesn't mean that China's behind it. All China would have to do is smile and watch. But it does mean we're not paying attention to what's happening right before our eyes, and not acting accordingly, which would be to enact laws to encourage US energy production, including fossil fuels, and to make it more attractive to manufacture things in the US than overseas. Especially electronics.
Which brings us to something interesting about Taiwan. The last I heard, Taiwan has chip manufacturing facilities that neither China or the US has. With any other president in the Whitehouse, that would give the US leverage against Chinese invasion: "Well, you
could invade Taiwan, but it would be a shame if something happened to that plant. Just a shame." That, of course, might hurt the US more than China, but we need to ask why such plants aren't here in the US to begin with.
I've rambled on far too long this morning (or for any other time). If you haven't read it, Henry Kissenger's
On China is informative. Kissenger isn't a favorite of mine, and at times in the book he seems a bit enamored with China, but it' a good primer.
