Coronavirus only the latest steep cost China has inflicted on the world

As the coronavirus pandemic ravages the global economy, a consensus is forming that China must pay a price. The virus provides the optics and convenient pretense that makes a Chinese reckoning more politically expedient. However, this is not an isolated incident requiring a one-time punishment.

Rather, the Chinese regime has exported economic, environmental, and viral costs on the world without repercussions for decades. The Chinese Communist Party acts with naked self-interest in all respects, enabled by the United States and the rest of the West, countries that remain supine while they do so. The appeasement must end — and force is required.