In a speech this week to the World Health Organization, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for international cooperation against the COVID-19 pandemic and greater support for the developing world. It was a bold claim of Chinese leadership, designed to deflect criticism of Beijing’s own pandemic response.

The growing narrative that China has seized on COVID-19 to step up its assertive behavior and exploit the pandemic for geopolitical gain, from Hong Kong to Taiwan to the South China Sea, is exaggerated. The reality is that Beijing had been engaging in the same types of pressure tactics for years.