China and the Covid Lockdowns, Stupid or Devilishly Clever?

In case you’ve been living under a rock, China has put roughly 50 million people and effectively the heart & brain of modern day China under lockdown since March 14th, for Omicron. Omicron, the version of Covid-19 that Bill Gates, the gentleman that wanted to vaccinate everyone on the planet, stated “is a type of vaccine” and that, “it’s done a better job getting out to the world population than we have with vaccines” in a February 22 interview.

In a day and age when other governments have decided to let Omicron run its course, is there any reason China would go to such extreme measures and endanger losing more of the support of their people?

Politics, seems to be the first answer that has come up. Xi Jing Ping is up for a third term and it is stated that a pillar in his re-election campaign is his “Societal Zero” program, a program that essentially says that no one is safe unless everyone is safe. Politicians have done more for less, but what if there is another reason?

Globally it is also no secret that the US and China have been vying for global dominance in a very public way over the last three years and in a much less public way for at least a decade. Effectively China has made it very clear that they are not a friend to the US nor are they a friend of the US, and as things have heated up in the South China Sea for the oil rights and the shipping lanes, they continue to make overt gestures of hostility towards the US and it’s allies.

Just as Hong Kong has gone from being an independent republic to being folded into the CCP governance, China now has their eye on Taiwan, the single largest producer of critical electronic components in the global supply chain and the 22^nd largest economy.

On February 4^th Putin arrived at the winter Olympics to strike a deal to sell oil to China if need be.

On February 24^th Russia upheld a long-held promise to retaliate if Ukraine continued to: 1. violate the Minsk agreements and 2. pursue becoming a NATO country. Especially since at this time it was perceived that the US and its allies were weak enough that they would not mount a full retaliation.

Here are the questions…

Is there any chance that a full lockdown of Shanghai and Beijing was not a move of totalitarian power by the CCP against their own people, that they are starting to have significant trouble with; as much as it was a strategic blow to all Western economies by starving each of them of critical materials at a time of globally perceived weakness? This move would be a very similar move to OPEC’s 2015 move to drop prices to try and kill the US shale industry, except this time the timing may be a bit better in the global game of chess when considering who may be the biggest loser.

If weakening the West’s position was the actual intention of this move, it seems like it would be well timed ahead of a play for the Republic of Taiwan, which would be likely scheduled for the coming weeks.