China is badly bungling its diplomatic response to its responsibility for unleashing COVID-19 on the world, and the consequences for its ambition to become the world's hegemon will be profound.  As you may have seen, when Australia announced that it would investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, China threatened a boycott.  The leftist Guardian summarizes the contretemps: Australia has been described as "gum stuck to the bottom of China's shoe," by a Chinese state media editor as Beijing criticised calls for an inquiry into the coronavirus origin as "political manoeuvring," further straining ties. Australia has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Beijing as it calls for an investigation into the origins and spread of the virus, which emerged in China late last year and has now killed more than 200,000 people around the world. Late on Monday, Hu Xijin, the editor of the state-run Global...(Read Full Post)