The world has not seen this dangerous of a virus since the Spanish flu of 1917.  But in today's world, the press and the Democrats use it as a political football.  They blame President Trump instead of the ones who are really culpable: the Chinese Communist government.  American Thinker interviewed experts on China to get their opinions on who is really to blame.

In looking at the Chinese government over the years, should Americans think of them as friendly, adversaries, enemies, or "frenemies"?  Gordan Chang (@GordonGChang), an expert on Chinese affairs, is also a columnist, lawyer, and author of The Coming Collapse of China.  He explained to American Thinker, "Last May China defined their role, declaring a people's war on the US.  If China viewed America as an enemy then they should be viewed as an enemy."

But the Democrats and mass media do not look on China as the enemy.  Rather, they consider President Donald Trump the enemy.  Just consider Andrew Yang, who recently said Trump is a racist for referring to the "Chinese Flu."  Nancy Pelosi said of the president that he is about "delay, denial, death."  They ignore what Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx have said: "[t]he first and only time that Dr. [Deborah] Birx and I went in and formally made a recommendation to the president to actually have a shutdown in the sense of strong mitigation, we discussed it.  Obviously, there would be concerns by some, and in fact, that might have some negative consequences.  Nonetheless, the president listened to the recommendation and went to the mitigation.  The next, second time that I went with Dr. Birx to the president and said 15 days are not enough, we need to go 30 days, he also listened."

Chang does not think the president should be blamed: "I have been looking at this for quite some time and it took me by surprise.  He got the first and most important decision correct: the travel restrictions on China.  Maybe he should have put the travel restrictions on Europe sooner, but overall, he has done a lot right.  Looking from a partisan lens, the Democratic Party has nothing to boast about.  Clearly, President Trump was blamed because he is blamed for everything."

Interestingly, some Americans accuse President Trump of ignoring the doctors and scientists.  Maybe they should refer back to what was said.  Dr. Deborah Birx said during one of the press conferences that any lack of preparation from U.S. officials in responding to the coronavirus pandemic was due to the fact that "we were missing a significant amount of the data" from China.  Dr. Fauci told Watters' World, "It was in January at a time when the Chinese were saying first that it was only going from an animal to a human and then when there were human cases that looked like they were ... inefficiently transmitted."  He also told Newsmax that because of the Chinese disinformation, he downplayed the virus risk: "[t]his is not a major threat for the people in the United States, and this is not something the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about."

Did the communist Chinese government do this intentionally?  Was it an accident, or was it bio-terrorism?  Chang believes that "maybe, at first, it was an accidental escape, but in the middle of the process, they turned it into a bioweapon to deliberately sicken people around the world.  They wanted to even the score because they were crippled and decided to cripple everyone else.  What they did was deny that it was human-to-human transferrable even though they knew by the second week in December.  At the same time, they tried to prevent other countries from imposing travel restrictions.  Putting these together is what caused this to be a global pandemic."

Joe Biden loves to sit in his basement and criticize the president for being soft on China and being inept in handling the virus.  Not fair, says another expert on China, Steven W. Mosher, (@StevenWMosher), who is also a social scientist, Fox News pundit, and author of the book Bully of Asia.  "I am a Sinologist and read the Chinese papers, and I did not see any signs.  I believed Dr. Fauci when he said it was no different than SARS in January.  If Hillary Clinton or Biden had won in 2016, flights from China would not have been closed.  We would have had an outbreak all over America, overwhelming the medical system.  There would have been hundreds of thousands of deaths.  Clinton and Biden would not have listened to scientific evidence, but listened to the lies told by China.  I would much rather see Donald Trump in charge than either Democrat.  The American people should not forget that up until a few weeks ago, Biden was criticizing Trump for being racist and xenophobic about the travel ban."

He further stated, "Biden is trying to get to the right on Trump with regard to China by counting on the media to carry water for him.  I hope that turning Biden's weakness on China into a strength will not fly.  After all, he has made nice on China for over thirty years.  Also, the Obama administration, in which Biden was vice president, did not replace the ventilators, masks, and medical equipment.  We went into this war against the virus unarmed because the Obama administration dropped the ball by not resupplying the strategic stockpile."

Chang added that on May 1, 2019, Biden made two wrong statements about the Chinese: "They are not bad folks, folks" and "they are not competition for the U.S."  Chang went on to say, "Biden has a terrible record on China, including post–Obama administration.  Any criticism by Biden is not fair or impartial."

Both experts also emphasized that the World Health Organization (WHO) worked hand in hand with China.  When Biden said President Trump is weak on China, the Trump administration pointed to what he is doing with the WHO as a sign that he is showing strength.  Chang agrees with the move to defund this organization.  Chang pointed out that on January 14, the WHO supported Beijing, agreeing that there should not be travel restrictions, insisted that there was no human-to-human transmission, and agreed with the Chinese government's numbers on death and infection. 

Unlike the Democrats, who only criticize, these experts offer suggestions.  Chang wants Americans to beware and not to be complacent.  "A month ago, people were saying biological weapons don't work because they are not practical.  But this is a great demonstration of how extensive it can be, to cripple an adversary.  Our enemies can see how to get to America.  Someone should be asking, what were the Chinese doing with all those coronaviruses at that lab?  There is no inspection in China."

Mosher agreed and added that the "Wuhan Institute of Virology was supposed to be a high-containment level four lab.  In 2018 the State Department published that it was actually operating as a level two low-containment lab.  I would say there was no containment and that the Chinese communist government has to be made to be transparent."

Chang also wants American companies out of China and to impose financial costs on China.  "We should do what Japan is doing to get Japanese manufacturing companies to leave.  Larry Kudlow said a few weeks ago the American companies that left should be given a 100% write-off.  I would give the president high marks for changing the policy.  I would also like to see seizure of Chinese assets and to consider all options short of force.  They maliciously assaulted our society, and America needs to impose such costs on China that they will never do it again."

Americans should be aware of what China is capable of.  The Democrats do not make any constructive suggestions.  Their only policy is to blame President Trump and make sure he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

The author writes for American Thinker.  She has done book reviews and author interviews and has written a number of national security, political, and foreign policy articles.