While the world is reeling from the devastation of a virus the Communist Party recklessly unleashed, Beijing is seizing the moment.

As the spread of COVID-19 subsides in China, Beijing has stepped up incursions into Japanese territory in the East China Sea, has sent a People's Liberation Army Navy aircraft carrier group to the waters surrounding Taiwan, impeded the exploitation of resources in the South China Sea by rival claimant states, and is planning to impose national security laws on Hong Kong which would contravene the One Country Two Systems principle, and continues its economic coercion over Australia for calling for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.