A Working Hypothesis: COVID-19 as pandemic bioterrorism

A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an event. A working hypothesis is a provisional explanation that requires further investigation before making a flat claim of accuracy.   Working Hypothesis: The COVID-19 event is a covert act—one not openly shown, engaged in, or avowed—of biological terrorism sanctioned by the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and aimed at the United States, with the expectation that other nations—as collateral damage—would incur consequences when their populations were also exposed to the virulent pathogen to a level that would mask the focused target of the assault.   

COVID-19 is the CCP's retaliation to the threat of US tariffs on Chinese goods

MOTIVE:  COVID-19 is the CCP's retaliation to the threat of US tariffs on Chinese goods that led, in July 2018, to the actual imputation of tariffs. "Over the 18 months that have followed since, the two countries have been embroiled in countless back-and-forth negotiations, a tit-for-tat tariff war, introduced foreign technology restrictions, fought several WTO cases, consequently leading US-China trade tensions to the brink of a full-blown trade war."   The incremental steps in that war are chronicled in China Briefing, a publication of Dezan Shira & Associates, "a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors."  The situation seemed to shift in January 2020. "[F]inally, on January 15, 2020, the first signs of a truce were seen, when the two sides signed the Phase One Deal, which officially agreed to the rollback of tariffs, expansion of trade purchases, and renewed commitments on intellectual property, technology transfer, and currency practices." As background to the "full-blown trade war," today's China is focused on Xi Jinping's signature foreign policy goal: China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).  Tim Miller, a senior analyst at Gavekal Research, and the author of "China's Asian Dream," profiled the BRI.

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China's Belt and Road Initiative

"China is using its vast and growing economic activity overseas to strengthen national competitiveness and build international leverage. Broadly, the strategy has two prongs: first, to acquire the technological expertise needed for China to become a first-rank industrial and military power; second, to assert China's economic leadership around the world, transforming it into a serious rival to the United States."  The Belt and Road Initiative, ignored by a US news media focused mainly on partisan political strife, is breathtaking both in scope and intention. It features a series of land transit routes, and an archipelago of seaport facilities.  BRI involves multiple-nation financing to sustain the construction of roads, pipelines, railway, factories, power grids, and ports facilities, in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  Here is its footprint: Nothing will stand in the way of Xi Jinping's "New Era" for China. Including Trump's move toward a more equitable and balanced trade agreement between the two nations.  The imbalance has helped China fund the BRI.  

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The capability of the CCP to produce the COVID-19 virus is not disputed

MEANS:  The capability of the CCP to produce the COVID-19 virus is not disputed. They have that ability at the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.  But the means is not just how to make the pathogen, but, also, how to deploy it.  One initial explanation as to how the virus escaped from the laboratory is that it was in dead lab bats that were not properly destroyed after their experimental use, but were sold in a nearby food market by an enterprising lab employee.  But since dead bats don't fly, even if the narrative is true, it doesn't account for the international spread of the virus. A McKinsey & Company document entitled "Chinese tourists: Dispelling the myths, An in-depth look at China's outbound tourist market," suggests s way to expand exposure to the virus. "Chinese outbound tourism has become the biggest tourist segment in the world. Where once tourists from China stayed close to home, they are now venturing farther afield thanks to more flexibility in international travel requirements (visas), an increasing interest in experiencing destinations outside of their comfort zones, and rising incomes... outbound trips are expected to reach 160 million by 2020." But would the CCP knowingly infect its own citizens with the COVID-19 virus as a catapult to spreading it? In the chapter entitled "The Communist Chinese Anthill" in Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaii R.J. Rummel's book "Death By Government," Rummel states: 

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Is China hiding the real numbers?

"[F]rom October 1949 to 1987, the Chinese Communist Party probably killed more than 35,200,000 of its own subjects."  As of this writing, the number of reported COVID-19 deaths in China is 3,287.  Meanwhile, Italy plus Spain's death toll is over 12,000.   By comparison, the curve of the graph of reported deaths in China is inexplicable. It suddenly flatlines on or about March 1. How does that happen? Is China hiding the real numbers? There is no disputing that the "China virus" came from China. Or, that China had the means to spread it, globally.   Nor is there any disputing the fact that the CCP has a long history of not holding the value of its citizenry in the highest regard.  See Tiananmen Square.

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Division, Disorder, Destruction

OPPORTUNITY:  If you are a nation state opposed to another nation state, and, if your intent is to sow the seeds of division, disorder and destruction among your opponent short of open warfare, then the host conditions were ripe for sowing in the USA.  Division: The election of Donald Trump was the catalyst for a "Resistance" that continues unabated.   Disorder: The liberal, progressive media—which still dominates the field of "news—is driven to distraction by its insane hatred of so-called ‘Orange Man'.   Destruction: Of the nation's economic health and its population's confidence in its governments.   COVID-19 came to an America as divided as it's been since the Vietnam War—if not more so.    Dialogue between the two major political parties becomes more strident by the month.  The hatred on the Left toward the President showed no signs of abating, even when the economy was in high gear.    Mayors of Big Blue cities, and governors of Blue States, looked for opportunities to criticize Trump even before COVID-19 hit.  In short, the psychic health of the nation was ill-prepared for a pandemic.  Today, Americans are binge-buying firearms and ammo, reminiscent of the Obama era.  The pre-existing low-trust level of the citizenry in government drops lower, as some state and local governments exercise unparalleled control over the lives of their citizens.

 The continuous COVID-19 hysteria pushed by the media

The continuous COVID-19 hysteria pushed by the media drives them to their local grocery store to horde paper towels, toilet paper, and canned food. Lockdowns are announced. Arrests are made of those who won't comply.  All this evolved very quickly.   The CCP was well aware of the pre-COVID-19 internal conditions in America. We're an open society.  They read us like an open book.  But we read them like the vast, largely inscrutable nation they are. Through  frosted glasses.   With 370,000 students from China attending American universities (2018-2019, representing a nearly 400% increase from ten years ago), the CCP has ears-on-the-ground to keep Beijing appraised of the American psyche.  So, if the intent of COVID-19 was as this working hypothesis suggests, then this was the opportune time to launch the virus.  We Americans had prepared the field.