Perhaps you’ll say that China’s rulers were deceptive because they were embarrassed, concerned for their country’s image. That’s understandable - which is not a synonym for forgivable. But there’s a more disturbing possibility.

President Xi knew the disease would seriously weaken China’s economy. He knew that if he helped other countries, those countries might suffer little or no damage.

Ben Lowsen, a longtime China expert at the Pentagon, wrote in The Diplomat that Mr. Xi may have asked himself this question: “Why should China suffer the effects of a pandemic while others stayed safe - and increase their strength relative to China - based on China’s own costly experience?”

We cannot assume, Mr. Lowsen added, that Mr. Xi would decide against withholding “support from the international community to ensure that China would not suffer alone.”

That would be immoral and, one might argue, criminally negligent. But don’t expect the International Criminal Court to take up the case. The ICC is too busy accusing the United States and Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Nor is it likely that the U.N. Human Rights Council will say or do anything. The UNHCR has long been dominated by egregious abusers of human rights.

Over many years, a growing list of transnational organizations have been taking Americans’ money and spitting in Americans’ eyes, under the direction of regimes hostile to America.

China’s rulers continue to lie. Not long ago, MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute) reported that China’s Arabic language television network is still telling its 14 million viewers that U.S Army personnel visiting China last October probably brought the virus with them.