ABSTRACT
While China's economy has been slowing since the end of the GFC, moving from double digits to single figures, the effect of the COVID-19 virus has brought it to its knees. It is much easier to accept a national dream if it somehow displays a prophetic consistency with world events. The COVID-19 response was very successful: it locked down a country of 1.3 billion people; it isolated and treated the disease; it initiated the necessary quarantine management, preventing mass outbreaks of the COVID-19 virus. It is the case that often conspiracy theories are false and that they do not fairly or objectively represent events in the world. Riding the wave of these reports, President Donald Trump is also now using this potential avenue for blaming China; on April 15, he said his government was looking into whether the virus came from the Wuhan lab.
