These narratives lie in ruins now due to his misrule. The string of failures is no accident but is rather the result of the inherent flaws of the one-party rule and Xi’s missteps as the head of the CCP. Any pretense that China possessed toward supplanting the global order legitimately has evaporated as these events reveal the true nature of the regime and Xi’s megalomaniacal rule. China may indeed replace the Western order, but if this were come to pass, the replacement of Western order will be illegitimate and mark a return to atavistic ideas and political principles.

Second, this opens an opportunity for the United States to explain to the world the costs of Xi’s misrule. These seriatim failures reveal the profound flaws of Xi’s rule. Moreover, they provide another opportunity to draw the stark contrast between the U.S. and China regarding the differences in their political principles, respect for freedoms and rights, how they govern, the consequences of their rule, and the vision each has of the future of international politics. In the realm of international politics, the consequences of COVID-19 should be sharply negative for China’s aspirations and diplomacy as the world is forced to address the result of Xi’s misrule. The world’s accounting will be measured in the deaths and sickness of their citizens and in the damage to the global economy.

Fundamentally, the pandemic is only the latest in a list of horrors that China has inflicted on itself and the world, and which, in turn, have dispelled the myth of the “China Dream” and “China model.”