Biden Gets Tough with China

The U.S. president’s interest in clarifying the origin of the pandemic is part of a struggle for hegemony with the Asian giant

The resurgence of suspicions about the cause of COVID-19 infection in humans has made it easier for U.S. President Joe Biden to request a report from the intelligence community within 90 days, clarifying, if possible, the origin of the pandemic. It is highly unlikely that the White House’s motives are strictly scientific, and it is significantly more likely that this step has been taken as part of the country’s increasingly strained relations with China.

In the escalation process that Donald Trump started and Biden has not eased up on, the denunciation of China’s lack of transparency regarding the origin of the pandemic is now a crucial ingredient in getting America’s allies to join forces and face China’s unstoppable global influence.

Indeed, it is necessary to determine whether the infection originated directly between an animal and a person in a public space, or if a security breach took place in November 2019 in a Wuhan lab that studied these kinds of infections, and China took too long in giving the alert about the incident. Yet, the president’s rush in requesting the report strengthens the theory that it is part of the struggle for hegemony on all fronts. It also fuels the belief that Biden wants to arrive at his June 16 meeting with Vladimir Putin in Geneva conveying a firm position to the international community, a position that the American right continually questions his ability to take.