By CNN. China wants to lead the global recovery from the pandemic and become more influential on the world stage than ever before. It might just have the momentum — and the confidence — to pull that plan off.

The world’s second largest economy shrugged off much of the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic last year, and its ability to keep growing while the world crashed into recession could mean its GDP exceeds that of the United States later this decade, years earlier than expected.

“China emerged from the Covid-19 shock earlier than the rest of the world and authorities are already planning for the long term,” wrote Françoise Huang, senior economist for Asia-Pacific at Euler Hermes, in a report last week titled, “The world is moving East, fast.”

China just outpaced the United States in attracting foreign direct investment for the first time. And as 2020 was drawing to a close, it signed a trade agreement with the European Union with the aim of boosting growth and giving European companies greater access to its 1.4 billion consumers. Now, Beijing is starting the new year without one of its most aggressive political adversaries, former US President Donald Trump, breathing down its neck. (Read more from “China Is Rehearsing for When It Overtakes America” HERE)

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More Evidence of ‘Suspicious Activity’ at the Wuhan Institute of Virology Emerges

By Sky News. “More and more evidence” is emerging that there was “suspicious activity” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the pandemic outbreak, according to Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“Some of this evidence points to the fact that this laboratory had workers who fell ill … around August of 2019”.

Ms Markson said the US State Department has released a fact sheet which says for more than a year, the Chinese Communist Party has systematically prevented a transparent and thorough investigation of the origin of the pandemic.

Instead choosing to devote enormous resources to deceit and disinformation, while nearly two million people have died, Ms Markson said.

The fact sheet was released by the US State Department on January 16. (Read more from “More Evidence of ‘Suspicious Activity’ at the Wuhan Institute of Virology Emerges” HERE)

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Chinese dictator Xi Jinping on Monday issued orders to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to prepare to “act at any second” and maintain “full-time combat readiness,” the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Tuesday.

Xi previously tightened his personal control of the PLA, using his position as chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) to appoint loyal officers and clean out suspect personnel under the guise of an anti-corruption campaign.

State news agency Xinhua described the orders as part of an effort to tighten Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control of the nation’s military and to prepare it for future conflicts:

Upholding the Party’s absolute leadership over the armed forces and focusing on combat capabilities, the regulations stipulated the guiding principles, leadership, responsibilities and structures of the committees in detail. At the same time, it sets requirements for its members.

The regulations will enhance the role of Party organizations in the armed forces and help with the Party’s goal of strengthening the military in the new era and building world-class armed forces.

(Read more from “Xi Jinping Orders Chinese Army To Prepare for War ‘at Any Second’” HERE)

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