Michael, it seems you wish to deride China because of their ideology. I don’t think many here would take issue with you in pointing out China’s communist government’s many sins over the years but as you said above of the UK, China is more than its government. I’m not sure in what regard you see China as having had “an easy ride.” Perhaps you could elaborate on that. As far as I see there is and has been a lot of anti-China press for a long time now.
However, it is difficult to fault their logic when it came to their response to a pandemic, a response honed on previous outbreaks of Sars and Swine flu. Other countries with a very much western outlook, Australia, New Zealand followed a similar logic as did the IOM right next door to UK and a crown protectorate.
I’m not so sure China is a communist state anymore. For sure it’s a one party state but the communist ideal of the means of production being owned by the people seems far from the reality. China produces more billionaires than anywhere else. Whatever has happened in China they have been through a remarkable journey in the last 50 years and have come from almost nowhere to the world’s second largest, soon to be largest, economy. With 1.3 billion population they have a huge resource, one no one can match except for India. They are here for the long run, perhaps it would be better to improve relations.