To judge by the Chinese authorities’ inept handling of the coronavirus outbreak, Beijing may well need to put its plans for world domination on hold.

It is all very well for China’s communist rulers to embark on the biggest military build-up seen in peacetime, or to seek to consolidate the country’s economic prowess with the construction of the ambitious Belt and Road initiative.

But Beijing’s prospects of becoming the world’s pre-eminent power appear far less convincing when set against the background of the woeful incompetence that has characterised the regime’s response to coronavirus.

It is not just that a failure to initially grasp the significance of the virus has resulted in the country being brought to a virtual standstill. Or that it has been forced to pump an estimated £22 billion into the economy to prevent a financial crisis, as well as a public health one that has to date claimed more than 1,000 lives.

It is the fact that, due to the rank incompetence of the communist bureaucrats responsible for running the country, the rest of the world now finds itself having to cope with a potential pandemic that, had they responded sooner, may well have been avoided. The virus has so far resulted in about 300 other cases being reported in 24 other countries, including at least eight in Britain.