Hi everybody, I'm John Donovan, host and moderator of Intelligent Squared U.S.

debates and the debate that you're about to hear relates to this thing that we

are all living through together, the coronavirus. And we know that a lot has

been said about what's going to change forever when the virus is finally

abated that day we all look forward to. But what's going to change forever in

areas like workplaces? Well, they always be different after this. We'll

retail shopping change forever. And the way that college students study will

it ever be the same again. And then there's the question that we're going to be

taking on directly. And it's literally a global question. It's this, who gets to

be number one in the arena of great power competition after coronavirus?

Now, we Americans, or at least many of us, are accustomed to the notion of

American primacy, where supposedly the nation that in a crisis the rest of the

world has to hear from and has to turn to and often needs to heed. But now

there's an argument that the coronavirus crisis is opening the door for another

nation to move up while the U.S. moves down and that nation is China.

Ironically, the place where COVID-19 first started. China has been

maneuvering for advantage during this crisis, very publicly sending help and aid

around the world. And also trumpeting its claimed conquest of the virus as an

example of the Chinese government's way of doing things being better. Basically,

usurping the role of the so-called indispensable nation that has long

belonged to the United States. So China has been gaining on the U.S. for years

economically. But is coronavirus going to be a game changer in this broader

...