by Monica Showalter for American Thinker

China with the coronavirus mask off 

reveals a snarling aggressive beast

So much for China spreading good will in the wake of inflicting the coronavirus on the restof us. 

Foreign policy experts of the Washington swamp consensus have been spreading the typical line that China in its post-coronavirus persona, is going to be magnanimous, showering gifts -- masks, loans, and free stuff -- and stepping up its international presence in global institutions, such as the World Health organization, in the hopes maybe making us all forget where that virus started in the first place.  It's all about soft power in the Chinese wheelhouse.

Here's a view from a Council on Foreign Relations swamper which ran in the Washington Post just three days ago:

Beijing sees the crisis as a chance to acquire more global leadership just as the United States abdicates it, a notion that worries some observers. In some ways, this could be good: Beijing has played a relatively positive role on climate change, for instance. But in many areas, like Internet governance, China is seeking to promote a closed, authoritarian model, one that could help keep repressive regimes in power. And a more powerful Beijing might further dominate its neighbors, making parts of Southeast Asia a potential U.S.-China flash point.

Might? That's some expert they have there. Here's what China really had in mind:

An Indian patrol party was detained and later released by Chinese forces after a scuffle between the two sides in Ladakh earlier this week, sources have told NDTV amid rising tensions between the two countries along the Line of Actual Control. The situation was finally defused after a border meeting of commanders from both sides.

The Indian forces have briefed the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), detailing the entire sequence of events that took place on near the Pangong lake.

They not only invaded someone else's country, they took its soldiers hostage? This is the doing of a belligerent. And everyone can see it.

There's also this:

Chinese plans to impose national security laws on Hong Kong could see mainland intelligence agencies set up bases there, raising fears of direct law enforcement and what the United States branded a "death knell" for the city's autonomy.

Communist Party rulers in Beijing on Friday unveiled details of the legislation that critics see as a turning point for the former British colony, which enjoys many freedoms, including an independent legal system and right to protest, not allowed on the mainland.

Hong Kongers are calling it the death of Hong Kong, the "final nail" in coffin for Hong Kong's autonomy. China has treaty obligations dating from its 1997 handover from Britain to maintain Hong Kong in its current form for 50 years. Less than halfway into it, they've decided to break the treaty, sending a message to everyone in the region that they don't keep treaties and don't care if Hong Kongers don't like it. They've even gotten mouthy about it to the U.S. today after the U.S. protested China's arrest of 180 peaceful Hong Kong protestors:

"Some political forces in the U.S. are hijacking the China-U.S. relations and pushing our two countries toward a 'new Cold War'," said China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi. "This dangerous attempt to turn back the wheel of history will undo the fruits of decades of long cooperation between the two peoples."

Cold war? These guys sound interested in a hot war, and in that slimy way of theirs are trying to lull us into thinking it will be merely 'cold.' Based on their huge upswing in spying activity, the cold war started years ago.

And hot war? Yes, there's something of the prelude already. China claimed it 'expelled' a U.S. Navy vessel from the South China Sea on May 2. Whatever the facts of that, it's remembered that less than a month earlier, a U.S. Navy captain was unwisely telling the press about the presence of coronavirus on his ship, alerting the Chinese to U.S. vulnerabilities. That seems to have excited them.

They've continued to cover up their role in the spread of the coronavirus around the world, they've lied about its details, they've attempted to blame it on Europe and on visiting U.S. servicemen, and they've been caught doing some suspicious activities that appear to have been a bid to spread COVID-19 into the White House, as well as steal vaccine development secrets from American pharmaceutical countries.

China was supposed to be contrite about the coronavirus, assuming it wanted to rejoin the world economy as before. Instead, it only used the crisis as a means of finding ways to come out ahead, its goal to supplant the U.S. as the world's premier superpower. But instead of holding their heads down in shame for showering the world with the coronavirus, China's communist rulers are showing that their idea of 'contrition' is aggression, abuse, and ugliness. The worse they do, the uglier they get.

This is no normal country. This is China with the coronavirus mask off and it's a snarling wild beast, raring to start a war.