And there’s no close second. Good piece from the Federalist why Xi should have been Times Person of the Year.
And please raise your hand if you were played for a fool by Xi.
We need a head count.
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Consider the evidence. At the dawn of 2020, Xi had a massive problem on his hands. For the third time in 23 years, China had lost control of a deadly disease, and this time evidence placed its origin in suspiciously close proximity to a secretive Chinese government bio laboratory.
Xi could have closed his borders, sounded the international alarm, and enlisted the world’s aid in saving the lives of his subjects. Instead, he opted to restrict domestic movement while allowing the Chinese to travel to foreign countries; he violently suppressed news of the outbreak; and he imprisoned, executed and “disappeared” the sick, the vulnerable, and whistle-blowing doctors and scientists alike.
He spent his “jump start” on the rest of us hoarding the world’s medical supplies. He activated puppet “leaders” at international nonprofit organizations like the World Health Organization to sideline Taiwanese warnings (thereby gaining more time for himself) and provide cover for Xi’s sins once word finally got out.
As panic spread through the ranks of world leaders, Xi sat back and watched his greatest competitors retreat into their homes, preferring to drown both their economies and their civil liberties in their basement baths rather than risk illness and death.
While retribution against Xi for his calculated part in the pandemic would have been assured in most any year, 2020 was an election year in the United States and the political and media elites of the world felt compelled to stand for anything Donald Trump stood against. This year, that list of things included China.
Xi was happy to assist. While his lieutenants fed propaganda and disinformation to willing Western media, his captains sniped at the president, “owning” him with claims of racism over his completely true accusations of responsibility. Press, Democrats, and celebrities alike were happy to parrot it all.
While the West busied itself with heaping up its own funeral pyres, Xi got to work himself, finishing off the pro-Western, pro-democracy rebellion in Hong Kong, cracking down on minority populations within his borders, and expanding the slave operations he uses to manufacture cheap products that undercut American industry– all while eliciting barely a peep of protest from American elites.
Now, as 2020 draws to a close, the economies of the United States and Europe lay battered and bruised, their cherished civil liberties in tatters. China’s greatest opponent, an American president who confronted them head-on and was practically assured of re-election as of just February, is defeated.
In his place stands a senile politician whose own son is likely compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.
Xi Jinping took a disaster and, through calculated lies and dictatorial cruelty, accomplished what seemed nearly impossible just last year. Content to abide their enemies and concentrate instead on the warms fuzzies of their navels, the Western elite won’t name him the person of the year. Hell, he might even get away with it.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/1...stunning-weakness-under-chinas-deadly-threat/
