Beijing may be using the coronavirus pandemic to advance its interests in the disputed South China Sea Published Mon, Apr 13 20209:21 PM EDT Yen Nee Lee@YenNee_Lee Key Points Earlier this month, a Chinese surveillance vessel rammed and sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat in the South China Sea — bringing into the spotlight Beijing’s multi-year assertions in the disputed waters. “Fundamentally, China has not let the Covid-19 outbreak dampen its pursuit of foreign policy issues,” said Kelsey Broderick, China analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group. The U.S. hit out at China for sinking the Vietnamese fishing boat, saying that it’s “seriously concerned” by reports of what Beijing did; while China accused the U.S. for attempting to negate its “legitimate claims” in the South China Sea. Further mistrust between the U.S. and China is unnecessary at a time when countries globally should be working together to fend off a fast-spreading coronavirus disease, said Susan Thornton, a lecturer and senior fellow at Yale University’s law school. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/14/chi...h-china-sea-despite-coronavirus-pandemic.html .......more....
Oh definitely. It's what they do and are all about 100%. And it is not just the South China Sea. That is why they have that ethiopian guy who botched two cholera epidemics in Africa as the head of the WHO. China loves to see situations where it can come in and play the good guy and continue to colonize Africa. Ditto for Europe. China has that Belt and Road Initiative thing which is basically a modern era Genghis Khan attempt to own the trade routes from top to bottom, east to west. And that initiative runs through all the Club Med countries. Thus you see China - who created the pandemic- trying to play good guy and savior in Italy. They see great opportunities to colonize in the chaos they created. It is also, not a coincidence, that Trump suddenly decided to sent all sorts of aid to Italy - not only to help- but to keep them out of the hip pocket of China.