In his 2017 book Destined for War, China expert and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Graham Allison writes that between 2011 and 2013, “China both produced and used more cement than the US did in the entire 20th century.”

It’s a stunning statistic, and here’s another: During a recent 10-year stretch, China constructed 12,000 miles of high-speed rail lines — which it now uses and enjoys. That’s the equivalent of a round trip from New York City to LA. And then another one. With around 900 miles to spare.

And remember that much-ballyhooed high-speed rail line of our own? The measly 520-miler that was supposed to run from LA to San Francisco? It was canceled by Governor Gavin Newsom back in 2019 due to cost overruns — and, clearly, lack of will. As National Review’s Rich Lowry wrote last year: “It started out at $33 billion in 2008. Now, it’s $113 billion, with no one knowing where the funding is going to come from.”

As if the leftist-dominated Golden State could ever rein in its hyper-regulatory urges in order to accomplish such an endeavor.

We mention all this because, these days, what China wants, China gets — from militarized man-made islands in the South China Sea to strategic control of Teddy Roosevelt’s Panama Canal. And with Joe Beholden Biden failing to provide anything resembling a check on Chinese power, the ChiComs have become ever more emboldened.

We saw yet another example of this on Tuesday, when the journal Nature reported that the World Health Organization had abandoned its plans for the crucial second phase of its COVID-19 origins investigation. The journal cited “ongoing challenges over attempts to conduct crucial studies in China.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is intently focused on shooting down used-car dealership balloons over northern Alaska.

What, exactly, are these investigative “challenges” cited by Nature? The article explains:

Researchers say they are disappointed that the investigation isn’t going ahead, because understanding how the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 first infected people is important for preventing future outbreaks. But without access to China, there is little that the WHO can do to advance the studies, says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. “Their hands are really tied.”

Not that we need an investigation to tell us that the deadly virus came from a lab in China, but what China wants, China gets.

Yet the ChiComs weren’t happy with merely the shutdown of the investigation. They feigned indignation on top of it. When asked about his complicit country’s transparency toward the WHO, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin pushed back: “China’s position on the study of the origins of SARS-CoV-2 is consistent. We always support and participate in science-based global origins tracing. At the same time, we firmly oppose all forms of political manipulation.”

Rather than seeking the truth, and with it, accountability, China lashes out. Laughably, Wang even tried to pin the COVID-19 outbreak on the U.S., via the biological research it has long (and safely) conducted at Fort Detrick, Maryland. As for “political manipulation,” it seems to us that the Chinese are blaming others for precisely that which they’re guilty of. And where have we seen that tactic before?

As a reminder, COVID-19 is reportedly responsible for nearly seven million deaths worldwide, including more than a million here in the U.S., depending on who’s counting.

Back in August 2021, the U.S. government issued its summary statement about its investigation of COVID-19’s origins, infuriatingly shrugging and declaring: “The [intelligence community] remains divided on the most likely origin of COVID-19. All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident.”

Upon reading this sorry summation, we couldn’t help but wonder: How much did the Bank of Beijing pay our intel community to publish such a weak, watered-down, mealy-mouthed assessment?

In an exit briefing, as Fox News reports, the WHO’s “scientists” said that COVID-19 “most likely” jumped “from animal to human, perhaps starting with a bat associated with the Wuhan seafood market, which was an early hypothesis.” Yeah, right. Not even Jon Stewart believes that malarkey.

Where COVID-19 is concerned, the Red Chinese are getting away with murder. And the Biden administration doesn’t seem to give a hoot.

Why might that be?

Updated with additional info on China’s blame-shifting and the WHO’s dubious findings.