After the oil industry collapsed and sunk to historic lows, Communist China rejoiced as the government sees it as an opportunity to allegedly “bottom out” Chinese energy assets, as well as to increase the country’s reserve.

While experts estimated that around 50,000-70,000 Americans might lose their job due to the market collapse, Chinese media Global Times reported that the communist country had doubled its crude oil storage, as compared to the country’s reserve around the same time in 2019. China, which is currently the top importer of crude oil, sees it as an opportunity to set additional oil important quotas from private refineries.

Thanks to the “Chinese virus,” Americans saw the oil market collapse due to the low demand from the government shutdown. The shutdown specifically made huge blows to the transport, and airline industries, as well as affected economies throughout the world. Moreover, it is the first time in years that oil prices have plummeted and went negative.

The Global Times was a part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda arm. On Tuesday, the Chinese media wrote: “Analysts say the historic drop in oil prices offers China, a major source of oil imports, a good opportunity to ‘bottom out’ certain oil assets and scale up strategic reserves.”

In an investigation by Reuters, the media outlet reported that in the first three months of 2020, the communist country was able to import 10.2 million barrels per day (BPD). To compare this, the country’s domestic output is at 3.74 million BPD and therefore leaving its oil reserves with 13.94 million BPD in the first quarter of the year.

Reuters cited that the country’s ability to store a huge amount of oil reserves should not serve not as a model, but instead as an “outlier.” Reuters cited that while other powerful nations were unable to store vast quantities of oil, China’s capability to double their storage “makes it unique, not a model.”

However, having more oil reserves might only be the few positive things that the country can experience during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In a more serious note, numerous countries are lobbying to make China accountable for the massive damages, as well as for the country’s failure to contain the virus.

Despite the country’s grievous mistakes, China refused to acknowledge their failure and alleged cover-up. To point this out, Chinese officials were furious after the most-read newspaper in Europe, the Bild, wrote that Beijing had to pay $160 billion in coronavirus damages. In an article entitled “What China Owes Us,” the German newspaper called out China to pay for the $24 billion losses in their tourism sector, $54 billion for the profits from small businesses, and even millions of dollars lost to flagship carrier Lufthansa. The Bild reported that China owes reparations to Germany, as well as to the rest of the world.

The newspaper’s editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt responded to China’s fury, saying that there is no excuse for the country to allow it from happening. According to Reichelt, China “can monitor everything” down to its own individual citizens. The editor added that for the country to allow high-risk animal markets is extremely irresponsible. “You will shut down any critical newspaper or website, but not the stalls selling bat soup.”