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For China, the war on coronavirus is, if not over, at least scaled down to a mopping-up operation. The West, by contrast, is still preoccupied by the pandemic to the virtual exclusion of

everything else. No wonder, then, that Beijing is taking the opportunity to test American resolve by reasserting its claims to sovereignty over the South China Sea, its islands and reefs.

Some $5 trillion of trade passes through these waters; keeping them open is one of the main pillars of the Pax Americana that has endured since 1945. Never mind that those claims are largely

bogus, contrary to international law and have been rejected by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The Chinese have the military, diplomatic and economic might to brush aside

the rights of their smaller neighbours. Of the five original “Asian tigers”, Hong Kong is now firmly under the control of the People’s Republic; Singapore is in social isolation; South Korea

is still hostage to the vagaries of Beijing’s psychopathic ally in Pyongyang; and Taiwan plays host to Chinese dissidents but treads softly on questions of sovereignty. Only Japan is large

enough to be more defiant but it, too, is militarily dependent on the US. In recent days, what was already a tense situation has escalated. China boasts of having ordered an American

destroyer, the USS Barry, to leave what it claims as territorial waters. The Pentagon denies that any confrontation took place. The warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, close to

mainland China, and thence to the trade routes in the South China Sea. Such patrols are routinely carried out by the US Navy and occasionally by its allies, including Britain, in an effort

to preserve the freedom of the high seas. Meanwhile, the Chinese Navy has also been active. Twice this month, the Chinese aircraft carrier _Liaoning _has sailed between Japanese islands,

including Okinawa. The carrier’s menacing mission follows news that Beijing has continued the naval buildup that began a decade ago, with the launch of an amphibious assault ship built in

just a few months. Tokyo’s protests have been ignored. These maritime manoeuvres are, of course, merely one aspect of a much larger strategic plan, whereby China seeks to exploit the vacuum

in global leadership. That vacuum has not been caused by Covid-19, but by the gradual retreat of the United States from its role in policing the international order. But Beijing has

doubtless concluded that the damage done to Western economies will accelerate their relative decline in power and influence. To the Chinese Communist Party, its ultimate goal of expelling

the US from Asia must now seem closer than ever before. For Washington, the alleged stand-off involving the USS _Barry _is a non-event, but fake news can sometimes be opportune. Of course

nobody wants a real naval confrontation with China, least of all at a time when several US warships are out of action after having been stricken with coronavirus. But this is a presidential

election year: both Republicans and Democrats blame the Chinese government for covering up the viral outbreak in Wuhan. There is much talk of an international investigation into the origins

of the pandemic, as well as litigation to demand compensation for losses incurred. None of this is likely to lead anywhere, but Beijing’s crude attempts to put the blame on the US have

infuriated the latter. Just as the trade war seemed close to an armistice, the Sino-American conflict has flared up on other fronts.   It is safe to say that China will play a significant

part in November’s election. Less predictable are the ways in which campaign rhetoric will poison the already fragile relations between the two superpowers. Donald Trump can be relied on to

stir the pot, but he has hitherto avoided personalising the issues, insisting that he has a good working relationship with Xi Jinping. Joe Biden may well seek to portray the President as

soft on his Chinese counterpart. Here in Europe, we are inclined to heap blame on Donald Trump for the world’s troubles. Yet it is Xi, not Trump, who threatens not only global health, but

peace, too. It was the Chinese leader who chose to silence his own whistleblowers and to manipulate the World Health Organisation in the early stages of the pandemic. It is Xi, not Trump,

who has chosen to return to the cult of personality of the Maoist era, who has crushed dissent in Hong Kong and incarcerated the Uighurs in Xinjiang. It is Xi, not Trump, who has recklessly

extended Chinese control across Africa, Asia and Latin America. And it is Xi, not Trump, who drives up carbon emissions by burning ever more coal. Imperial China, even at its most powerful,

never aspired to world domination. The revolutionary China of Mao Zedong, even at his most megalomaniac, was always the junior partner of the Soviet Union. But the nationalist China of Xi

Jinping apparently recognises no limits to its expansion. The combination of monopoly capitalism, totalitarian communism and, now, gunboat diplomacy puts the world in peril. We can only pray

that the Chinese dragon will not have to be returned to its lair by force.