Gifts from China By Paul Walker

     The first gift from China are plagues:
  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/5-plagues-from-china-in-last-20-yrs-at-some-point-it-has-to-stop-us-nsa/articleshow/75707451.cms
  https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/5-plagues-have-come-out-of-china-in-last-20-yrs-says-us-national-security-advisor/article31570998.ece

“China needs help. And we’re prepared to help China deal with the public health crises so we don’t face this issue again,” Robert O’Brien said. As many as five plagues have come out of China in the last 20 years and at some point it has to stop, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien has said, holding the country responsible for the origin of the coronavirus pandemic which has killed over 2,50,000 people globally. People across the globe are going to rise up and tell the Chinese government that “we can no longer have these plagues coming out of China”, whether it is from labs or wet markets, neither one is a good answer, he told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “We know it came from Wuhan and I think there’s circumstantial evidence that it could have come from the lab or the wet market. But, again, if you’re China, neither one’s a good answer,” O’Brien said. “We’ve had five plagues from China in the last 20 years. We’ve had SARS, avian flu, swine flu, COVID-19 now and how longer can the world put up with this terrible public health situation that you’ve got in the People’s Republic of China that is being unleashed on the world,” the top American official said. He, however, did not mention the fifth plague to come out of from China.

“I mean, this is — at some point, it’s got to stop. We offered to send in health professionals to help the Chinese. They rejected that,” he said. When asked that the U.S. is still looking for evidence about the origin of the virus, he refrained from giving a timeframe. “I can’t give you a timeframe on that. That’s something that we’re continuing to review and it is obviously a very serious concern. “Look, China’s got to figure out how to deal with its public health because we cannot have another one of these virus outbreaks and plagues come from China. This was a terrible thing that happened to the entire world, not just to the United States,” he said.  “The world economy shut down, and this isn’t the first time it’s happened. This is the fifth time it’s happened in 20 years, and it’s got to stop. China needs help. They need help from the rest of the world. And we’re prepared to help China deal with the public health crises so we don’t face this issue again,” O’Brien added.”

     Now China is launching a social media disinformation campaign to cover its tracks:
  https://theprint.in/tech/china-has-launched-a-social-media-disinformation-campaign-on-coronavirus-researcher-says/420210/

“An army of bot accounts linked to an alleged Chinese government-backed propaganda campaign is spreading disinformation on social media about coronavirus and other topics, including an exiled businessman, according to a London-based researcher. The accounts have been used to promote content attacking critics of the Chinese government and to spread conspiracy theories blaming the U.S. for the origins of virus, according to Benjamin Strick, who specializes in analyzing information operations on social media websites. Between April 25 and May 3, Strick said he identified more than 1,000 accounts on Twitter that were associated with the Chinese disinformation effort, as well as more than 50 different pages on Facebook. He estimated that 300 or 400 new Twitter accounts were joining the network each day, as part of the Chinese campaign. “The network has evolved and is still growing,” said Strick, in an interview. “I believe it’s a state-backed Chinese campaign.” Strick’s work is the latest research suggesting China has ramped up disinformation around the coronavirus, to dilute their own culpability and shift blame elsewhere, although some have cast doubt on certain findings or suggested they may warrant further investigation. In research published last week on the investigative website Bellingcat, Strick described the operation as a “well-structured information campaign” that was working in a coordinated way “to skew the narrative around varying topics, and to push set agendas.”

     And then there are all of those extra IQ points, beloved of American Renaissance, put into creative computer research, such as hacking:
  https://www.foxnews.com/world/chinese-iranian-hackers-coronavirus-vaccine-research

“American universities, pharmaceutical and other healthcare firms are being targeted by Chinese and Iranian hackers in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, according to reports. The aggressiveness of the cyberattacks is such that some U.S. officials view them as tantamount to war, according to the Wall Street Journal, because they may have hurt research into a COVID-19 vaccine. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the cyber branch of the Department of Homeland Security, are expected to issue a “public service announcement” regarding China today, the Journal reports. “China’s long history of bad behavior in cyberspace is well documented, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone they are going after the critical organizations involved in the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Christopher Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told the Times. China and the U.S. have been embroiled in a furious war of words since the coronavirus outbreak began, blaming one another for mishandling the pandemic. Earlier this week, China issued a 30-page rebuttal of what it claims are the top 24 lies told by U.S. politicians over Beijing’s handling of coronavirus, including where it originated and allegations the government tried to silence whistleblowers and cover up vital data. And earlier this month, top Republicans from a slew of House committees demanded information  about what they said is the Chinese Communist Party's "investment in American colleges and universities to further its strategic and propaganda goals" -- an initiative they claimed could be "foreign academic espionage.”

     We are fortunate to be living in the China century, no, millennium, and should be very humble indeed when speaking the name of the Middle Kingdom, they call, the centre of the world. Who am I to argue with Emperor Xi Jinping.