How will the Coronavirus change global politics?

The Coronavirus is sweeping around the world. It’s a global emergency like we’ve never seen before. Europe now has become epicentre of the Corona crisis. Italy is ground zero, and its healthcare system is buckling under the pressure. Scenes like this could come soon in Spain, France and Germany too. And European leaders are warning it could get much, much worse.

And the US isn’t far behind, although the president insists he is on top of things. But the markets don’t seem to agree. The economy is heading for a huge recession.

Back in China, where it all began, the worst seemsto be over, at least for now. Infections are down dramatically from their peak and president Xi Jinping has been to visit healthcare workers in the city of Wuhan, which is China’s ground zero. Some have even said China’s response is a model for the world. An extreme lockdown that helped to slow the virus’s spread, a makeshift hospital built in a matter of days, all made possible by an authoritarian regime that is able to act quickly and decisively.

Is that true? Do you need to be a dictatorship to handle a killer virus? Are Europe and the US at a fatal disadvantage in tackling this intense crisis? We’re going to compare these three big players: China, where it all began, Europe, now at the centre of the pandemic, and the US, where infections are spreading fast. Our Analysis is taking a deep dive in what’s going wrong, what’s going right, and what global politics might look like after this crisis.