In 1976, China experienced the Tangshan earthquake, which measured 7.5 Mw on the seismic scale. It was not the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. That honor goes to the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile, which came in at 9.4-9.6 Mw. Likewise, the earthquakes that triggered the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the 2011 tsunami in Japan were both more powerful.

However, in terms of damage, the Tangshan earthquake was one of the most destructive earthquakes in world history. Or at least, we think it was. China was extremely cagey about the casualties. Those familiar with earthquakes and with China (building construction, population density, and historic quakes), estimated that the earthquake caused between 700,000 and 750,000 deaths. The Communist Government, though, initially admitted to only 100,000 deaths. Eventually, the government admitted to 242,769 deaths.

For many people alive today, the Tangshan earthquake was their first introduction to Communist China’s refusal to acknowledge the scale of problems within its borders. This reluctance makes sense. If you’re an all-powerful government, you can’t admit that your bad policies (i.e., lousy building codes or rescue operations) led to people’s deaths. In the case of the Wuhan virus, you can't admit that you carelessly ran a viral lab, that you let a deadly virus get out of control within your borders, and that you released it outside of your borders.

From the beginning of the Wuhan virus, China has engaged in a massive cover-up. Some people believe that this cover-up proves that China engineered the virus and deliberately released it. Assuming that most things can be explained by stupidity, not malice, the greater likelihood is that China’s cultural carelessness (regularly seen in all the crap products that come to America), when applied to a lab dealing in deadly viruses, resulted in an accidental release.

However, while the virus may have escaped the lab accidentally, everything the Chinese have done since then has been deliberate and, for that, China deserves every bit of blame heaped upon it. It deliberately covered up the virus’s spread and the virus’s aggressiveness. President Trump rightly says that China’s stated infection and mortality rates are entirely unbelievable.

It's one thing for China to lie about an earthquake to save face, for the harm is limited to the country. However, to lie about an infectious disease is an order of magnitude more evil. China then took that evil up a notch by is taking advantage of the havoc it's wreaked around the world by buying up broken businesses:

Watch out for Chinese companies swooping in with buckets of cash to buy strategic stakes, or majority control in U.S. and European companies as asset prices fall due to the pandemic.

NATO sounded the alarm this week, though without naming names.

Governments need to step in and stop this. It would be disastrous were China to use its carelessness and deceit to gain world economic control.

That brings us to Tucker Carlson, who did a scathing riff about China’s lies, the price the world is paying for those lies, and the disgraceful behavior of the American media which, in thrall to Trump derangement syndrome, is buying China’s lies wholesale and spinning them here in America:

(If you can’t view the video, you can read the transcript here.)

Not only should China be banned from going bargain hunting around the world, it should be forced to compensate the world for the economic harm it’s caused. Seizing its assets outside of China would be a good start.