Billionaire George Soros believes the United States should be careful about working with China to avoid jeopardizing its own democracy. Talking to German newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine Editor-in-chief Gregor Peter Schmitz, Soros said the current tensions between the U.S. and China, which are two of the world's largest economies, and Trump accusing China of hiding information about the virus from the world were running the possibilities of joint efforts to eliminate COVID-19.
Soros has never recommended having closer relations with China. “There are a lot of people who say we should be working very closely with China (on tackling the crisis) — but I am not in favor of doing that,” he explained. According to the renowned philanthropist, it is imperative for America to protect its democratic open society, while trying to figure out a way to fight climate change and the virus, which will not be an easy task.
Soros sympathized with the Chinese people, who he said was under the domination of a dictator. Moreover, he noted that the coronavirus crisis was increasing pressure on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s hold on power. Well-educated Chinese are angry with the leadership for hiding details about the virus for so long.
Xi terminated term limits, naming himself president for life, destroying the political future of the most important and ambitious men in extremely narrow and competitive elite, Soros explained, adding that it was a bid mistake on his part. While he is strong in a way, Soros said Xi is extremely weak and probably vulnerable as well.
The coronavirus outbreak was originally reported to the WHO (World Health Organization) in late Dec. following an outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan. According to experts, the virus originated much earlier in one of Wuhan's wildlife markets called wet markets.
China has received strong criticism from other countries for not divulging details and mishandling the initial outbreak. The country; however, continues to deny any sort of wrongdoing with Chinese Vice Premier telling NBC that the country neither covers anything up nor did it delay any efforts.
The WHO has urged countries to not accuse other countries with a higher number of cases for spreading COVID-19 as this might discourage them from accurately reporting on domestic outbreaks. Despite been strongly criticized, an Economist Intelligence Unit report claimed that the pandemic could trigger a shift in global power from the West to the East, transferring the power from Washington in Beijing.