Luckily it seems like the crazies are pretty evenly split between 'it's a bioweapon that China intentionally launched to take over the world' and 'the whole thing is a joke, this is just the US government trying to control your brains/force a vaccine or whatever'.
Not the 'US government' particularly. A lot of governments around the world are following certain strategies, and often under significant duress.
Looks to me as though both the U.S. and China are effectively pawns in a game. Even more interestingly, it looks like they are the same color. Now pawns can get in the way and trip one another up, but generally speaking it is better to have them around than not. They can be sacrificed, but for a valuable reasons. Or they can advance to be crowned.
It is worth note that back in the day, conquering an area meant not only the land but the population which went along with it in order to work the fields, mine the salt, supply concubines, etc. The people were the prize as long as they could be managed. Technology has changed things somewhat, but you still need 'inventory and control' of assets. The buyer has to know what he is getting. The better your 'inventory and control', the more valuable the asset. ID2020 + 5G will be the biggest 'value add' in the history of the world.