, Columnist
The World’s Bad Actors See Coronavirus as an Opportunity
China’s crackdown on Hong Kong is part of a broader pattern of aggression by Iran, Russia and North Korea.
China’s sole aircraft carrier on a stealth offensive.
Photographer: Mark Schiefelbein/AFP/Getty Images
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Geopolitics doesn’t stop during a pandemic, even if life as we know it does.
Before coronavirus, the U.S. was fighting trouble on several fronts at once, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East to the waters off East Asia. Since the outbreak began, American energies have been diverted, but the challenges have hardly ceased. Coronavirus is reminding us that the U.S. can’t do well in the world if it isn’t doing well at home; it is also showing that the longer the U.S. is hobbled, the messier that world will get.