Make communist China pay for COVID

The aftermath of COVID-19 is the perfect opportunity for the U.S. to lead a global rebuke and rectify the past half-century's giant mistake. The U.S. must lead a coalition of like-minded nations to impose punitive tariffs and crippling sanctions on the CCP and its many minions. The U.S. must also be unapologetic in using state power, if need be, to prevent its corporations from doing business in China. This can probably come from the executive branch, though Congress will also need to get involved for there to be meaningful teeth. Another intriguing possibility—admittedly a better fit for a weaponized bioweapon scenario, but still arguably apropos in other scenarios—is to formally label China a state sponsor of terrorism under extant law, which would have the incidental effect of precluding U.S. corporations from entangling themselves there. The U.S. should also attempt to lead an international consortium that attempts to quantify the harm done by the CCP's disastrous mishandling of the virus, securing reparations in the form of monetary payments to victims' families and/or sovereign debt forgiveness. And if China does not oblige, the U.S. can lead a multinational effort to seize Chinese assets en masse. The threat posed by the People's Republic of China is this century's greatest challenge confronting the U.S. and the West, more broadly. Properly meeting that challenge necessarily entails making China pay for the destruction it has wrought with the COVID-19 global meltdown.