True in the short term. Like all liars, the US gets a temporary advantage but loses in the longer run. For example, while the "WMDs in Iraq" lie allowed the Americans to destroy Iraq, the long-term damage to US credibility has been severe.
Prolonged dishonesty has another, less obvious problem: once the liars have been allowed to pollute the public mind without being punished, what else will they lie about? Could they deceive the public on something truly important, like nuclear war? Of course they could. The US rulers must be conscious of this danger; I expect them to keep the liars on a leash.
So I am not too worried about the anti-China propaganda regarding Covid. It seems effective now, but it will be exposed, just as Iraq's nuke shortage has been exposed. And the US will be damaged far more than China.
One thing China must
not do: follow
@voyager1/Kaine's advice to answer the American lies with lies. This may benefit China in the short term but it would seriously damage China's long-term reputation.
I would like to agree with you. But history has been very kind to the US lying. The Iraq war one of the few exceptions because it was debunked relatively quickly. But there are other lies that took decades to debunk, or were never officially debunked. Such as:
1) Tiananmen square 'massacre'. The PLA tanks "crushed democracy protesters". Took more than 30 years to debunk. Till today, people still associate Chinese tanks with oppression.
2) Gulf of Tonkin incident. Only today are people questioning whether its a lie. Officially, its never debunked.
3) 2011 Libyan war. Gaddafi giving orders to soldiers to conduct genocide. Never officially debunked.
4) Osama bin Laden was America enemy #1. But never an American asset? Never officially debunked.
5) Moscow apartment bombing is an 'inside job'. Never questioned in the mainstream. Only the pro-Russian circles are questioning it.
All of the above examples have caused widespread death and destruction, or stigma (in the case of China and Russia) for many decades. But America never truly paid the price for these lies and atrocities.
So regarding the latest lie to frame China as the creater of the Covid-19 pandemic. Take the vaccine lies as an example. People in the mainstream of the free world still fell for it. The average Joe believed it because he doesn't have the time to research and question it. He just trusts MSM's words as he have for many years. The China-hater embraces it because this is what they wanna hear. So this Wuhan-lab BS is starting to take off and will go full mainstream if left unchallenged.
China is still receiving stigma for SARS. So its extremely easy to stigmatize China again for Covid-19, even when China has been telling the truth for at least most of the time. China suspecting Fort Detrick is not technically a lie. There are circumstantial evidence that something is amiss there. If America is truly innocent, why does it go to great lengths to silence suspicions of that place? America could just have easily allowed an investigation into that place to disprove and humiliate China.
The main problem is the power of the American influence in media and politics. The Chinese are just too new in this arena to put up a serious fight. It is only the critical thinkers or pro-China fans who are against the China-hate campaign.
On the brighter side. The world will eventually have to open up to China. Not because they love China, but because they need Chinese money. China should learn the lessons of the past and leverage this fact. Demand that these countries stop their Sinophobia, or no deal. You cannot sign any deal with China, but at the same time promote Sinophobia. Those old times have to stop.