> The problem with the line of thinking that China deliberately engineered/created/released sars-cov-2 is that there's zero motivation for it. What could they possibly gain from it? What's the strategic value of it?

I want preface that I agree that as of right now there isn't enough evidence to determine that the CCP deliberately released the virus. But they certainly gained a lot in the process and capitalized in every possible way and tried to cover their corruption and continued to dissapear physicians, journalists and anyone who tried to expose their incompetence and maleficence in regards to COVID. None of the death numbers or cases align with the population size and exposure rates and they can get away with it because 'It's China.'

Hong Kong and the yellow movement was created during massive protests in 2014 that escalated again in 2019 with the advent of the extradition bill, these protests were a complete throne in the side of the CCP as it put into question China's real power in the region. Hong Kong was in complete disrepute by the Summer and had violent protest that led to deaths on the streets until the outbreak of the pandemic in late December. While the CCP boarded up Wuhan citizens it didn't stop the outflow of mainlanders to HK despite public outcry from HK medical professionals who recalled the SARS pandemic that killed so many in Hk as result of CCP negligence and continued to overwhelm the hospitals and mainlanders got exemptions from mandatory quarantine measures put in place to reduce to the contagion of COVID, so the infection numbers kept up: but why is this important?

Because HK then went into lockdown and essentially stopped all protests in an attempt to stop the virus spreading, these protests were giving the Western powers the ability to expose the CCP's heavy handed retaliation and violence in its illegal annexation led by a clearly corrupt regime with Lam in place allowing that would lead to the the police to become paramilitary jack booted thugs and beat, jail and murder anyone that disagreed with it, as seen in the article above. The HK police force that committed those crimes had been exposed to have uniquely mainlander/Mandarin accents and traits as opposed to the Cantonese that is spoken exclusively spoken in HK. So it seems the PLA had been introduced as the local police force in HK, essentially leadin to a justified occupation of HK by the CCP.

This then allowed them to pass the National Security Law, suspend elections, remove all protections and civil liberties as the CCP sees fit and purge and put political dissidents in jail and essentially annex HK prematurely which was in direct violation of the treaty agreed upon by the UK that protected the 2 systems one country mandate that would be protected until a complete hand over would be completed in 2047--which would technically violate the process and may be actionable/trilable to return HK to British control. But none of that matters now as the rest of the World is reeling from the wide spread damage of financial crisis, lockdowns and mass unemployment due to the pandemic and in the case if the UK Brexit trade deals.

The CCP just issued an international manhunt for political protestors and activists who fled HK, even though many Western countries (where they reside) have since removed their extradition treaty with China, which means, or at least suggests, that the CCP is willing to use extra judicial means to capture or kill these people in countries they have no jurisdiction in, which in incredibly dangerous precedent as seen with US internationalism that only leads to more violence and death.

What this also did was consolidate the key Western leaning and affluent forward facing financial hub between the West and China (Hong Kong), in an attempt to allow places like Schenzen to act as the new hub which is in direct control of the CCP as China flexed its muscles as the indispensable gear in international supply chains of the World. If you dared to question it you were sanctioned, as seen with Australia who is highly dependent on Chinese exports and trade. This set a cooling effect throughout many Industrial nations like Germany who have been entirely silent on these atrocities since so much of their manufacturing is now dependent on Chinese factories. The 5 eyes and Japan have been creating sanctions but continue to operate with China on its terms now in many ways. I'm not even going to touch the lucrative real estate deals in HK by mainlanders as that is a book unto itself of corruption and ever eroding standards of living in the most expensive place to live on Earth.

It also made it clear to the World that the CCP has Imperial ambitions and put the cross-hairs on Taiwan, a long disputed issue and a source of identity schism amongst people of Han Chinese ethnic origin. The CCP just sent 10 people to prison for trying to flee Hong Kong to what is supposedly China according to the CCP (Taiwan) for 3 years as they violated border controls under the NSL. They have essentially instilled the right to sentence people for non-existent crimes according to their own logic.

I can go on, but this should at least give you some context to your frankly very ignorant position on the matter.

This is all based on a contentious 5000+ years of History, and I didn't even touch on the atrocities of Tibet, Xianjing, Macau and condensed as much as possible, but suffice it say that the CCP (a frankly new regime formed in the early 20th century that hijacked and perverted the rich Chinese History for its own political agenda) will not stop at anything to unify the supposed 'greater China' territory and these atrocities and crimes against Humanity are simply another footnote in its long History as an Imperial force on the World.

The CCP just uses any and all methods used from the most egregious totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, even on its own people and will not hesitate to use it on Western barbarians. Their propaganda claimed it was a US developed bio-weapon at first, and then they tried to blame Italy for it all while trying to make people ignore that there is bio-weapons lab in Wuhan, and sadly due to the damage from the floods we may never get a real answer to whether COVID originated from there.

What is clear is that the CCP has essentially gained so much power it exposed Western democracies and governance as equally as totalitarian as its own all while using those methods unapologetically to further gain power in the region and create discord all while dodging what are clearly Crimes Against Humanity as seen in the article posted.