China: An unpopular winner in the year of the coronavirus

China has emerged as a winner in a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has contained the virus, its economy is recovering and criticism of its crisis management has faded. But relations with the West remain fraught. China has the pandemic under control. But is that also true of the collateral damage it has suffered on the international stage? Beijing faced massive international criticism for its nontransparent conduct at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. In its bid to ward off the accusations, it resorted to the full range of its propaganda tools, smashing a lot of diplomatic china…