Relations between the U.S. and global competitors such as China may be eroding more quickly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said William Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas.
"The coronavirus just threw kerosene on the flames that were already there," Inboden said in an interview published on UT News. " Before coronavirus came along, the U.S. and China were already in a growing strategic competition. The relationship between our countries was deteriorating, and this had been going on for several years. COVID-19 has accelerated that, but it hasn’t changed the direction."
The fact that China is not a democratic nation also was highlighted in its government’s failure in reporting the severity of the virus in a timely manner, Inboden said.
“China’s repression of its coronavirus alerts showed right away the difference between democracies, which have early warning systems, and authoritarian systems, which don’t,” he said. "Experimentation is a little messy, but democracies are usually better when there’s an unprecedented challenge and eventually are going to find the right solutions sooner."
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