Shakeel Ahmad Ramay
It looks strange to see U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo giving a sermon on importance of freedom but in the same breath attacks a sovereign nation on using the same right and threatens to interfere in its internal affairs.
US – China
In his speech on 23rd July 2020, the top U.S. diplomat proposes to induce change in China to secure the slogan of “make America great again”.
He hinted to achieve this objective by creating a wedge between Communist Party and people of China. In pursuance of the dream of undermining China, he does not hesitate even to politicize United Nations. He asks the United Nations to support the U.S. narrative without realizing that Washington itself is undermining the world body by quitting many of its agencies.
He seems to be attempting to equate UN with NATO or G-7, which if true, is a grave US mistake to disrupt and push back the global system.
It looks more shocking that no one challenges Washington over its efforts to establish its hegemony and undermine the United Nations rather it is applauded and encouraged.
It is a clear example of USA’s approach of ‘my way or no way and Mr. Pompeo believes ultimately Washington would be successful in its efforts to manage Beijing.
In his speech, Pompeo said: ”I have faith we can do it. I have faith because we’ve done it before. We know how this goes”.
He cited example of USSR, but he forgets that tackling China is entirely different ball game.
China is an emerging economic powerhouse with a GDP of around US$ 14.5 trillion.
It is largest economy in term of purchasing power with US$ 27.31 trillion. China is the world’s production house as against America which relies on services.
The American dominance in the services sector has also been challenged by China through its marvelous success in technology and knowledge generation.
Technology is at the heart of ongoing tussle between the U.S. and China.
Technology war between US and China
Last year, President Trump at a briefing on 5G said, “We cannot allow any other country to out-compete United States in this powerful industry of future”.
These remarks by Mr. Trump have put the perspective of country in the clearest words. It outlines the strategy of the United States that it would do everything to resist any country challenging its superiority in the field of technology. It is more shocking to note that the U.S. does not want to compete but wants to hinder. It is against the spirit which U.S. usually propagates about a free world where everyone is free to progress in a healthy completion and is given equal opportunity with others to achieve this goal. This is classic example of contradiction in words and actions.
The way China is progressing in technology advancement it looks next to impossible to contain it. China is leading the world in the 5G technology and has started to invest in 6G.
Robotics sector is attracting a lot of attention and financial resources. Quantum computing has achieved tremendous success. China’s progress in artificial intelligence has been matchless, so far.
These facts have been known to the United States for a long for long time but it has been hiding them from the world.
It is shy of completion and is thus trying to contain China by laying traps under different pretexts.
First of all, it applied Thucydides trap and tried to intimate China. China acted wisely during the period and dealt the Hainan incident, Taiwan and South China Sea issues with wisdom and patience.
The failure of Thucydides trap led to application of “Middle Income Trap”. China also avoided it by giving impetus to domestic consumption and building new partnerships.
Now China has introduced a new model of “duel circulation” which will help China in the long run.
Kindleberger trap was third one whereby it is believed that rising power does not invest in global public goods. China reversed the argument and proved that it is a responsible rising power which made investment in the U.N. peace keeping, environment and now in cooperation on COVID-19.
The failure to achieve the objectives led to creation of a brand-new trap the S-trap. It is mix of all three previous traps with few new characteristics (Fig-1). Economic and technology war is going on for long time. The United States has already imposed different types of sanctions and is coercing other countries into doing so. It is also running a smear campaign to malign China and Chinese companies.
Technology and services are at the heart of new campaign. The U.S. and the West already enjoy the supremacy in technology and services but they are now challenged by China. The U.S. and its Western allies are scared of future competition and achievements of China in these sectors.
S-Trap
The abuse of civil liberties is another argument which is getting prominence in campaign and is integral of S-trap.
The Hong Kong riots are being propagated by the U.S. and its main western ally, the United Kingdom, as a propaganda tool against China through the Western media.
The United States has even passed a bill in the name of human rights and civil liberties to chastise China.
But strange China is being targeted at the time when protests are being held in the United States and Europe against discrimination and growing violence by the state agencies against the black people in the U.S.
Ironically, the movement of “Black Lives Matter” could not attract any sympathy from the U.S. administration or the two-chambered legislature.
Rather, President Trump ordered strict action and deployed armed forces to disperse the protests in favor of the black people.
Blatant criticism of China’s handling of the COVID-19 is the new element in the anti-China campaign.
First Americans tried to malign China by naming it “China virus”
Now the United States is accusing China of stealing information on vaccine.
Although, China has its own well-developed health and R&D system, but the U.S. administration is hell-bent to defame it.
China countered the propaganda by extending full cooperation to world to tackle and contain the pandemic.
Mr. Pompeo is leading the anti-China drive and his July 23 speech part of that campaign.
He is urging everyone and institutions including the United Nations, NATO, G-7 and G-20 to help undermine China. He is also touring important world capitals to convince them to refuse investment in 5G, technology and economy.
He got some success, especially from UK as it has refused to be part of Huawei 5G network. Pakistan is also facing immense U.S. pressure to come out of CPEC but it has refused to fall into line with Washington.
Contrarily, Pakistan has fast-tracked the process of implementation of CPEC by erecting new institution like CPEC authority.
Mike Pompeo
The results of Mr. Pompeo’s anti-China campaign as well as global dynamics suggest that the chances of success in containing or isolating China are very slim.
There are three main reasons for this conclusion.
Firstly, the United States has failed to create any rift between Communist Party of China (CPC) and people of China because CPC strictly follows its principle of ‘People First’.
President Xi always promotes the “China Dream” which runs counter to the ‘American Dream’.
The so-called American Dream talks about individual but China Dream is about the nation. It talks about the prosperity of nation not individual success because individualism give birth to in-equalities. The prominent example is President Xi’s commitment to end poverty in 2020.
Second, China has started to implement the “Duel Circulation Economy”. It is huge shift from export led growth. The focus would be on the domestic consumption and it will get the driving seat to lead the growth. It will help China in lessening its dependence on foreign trade and countries.
President Xi has introduced the model and ask the Chinese government and companies to work on it to make it reality. He believes China has complete set of industries and resources which can support the new model. Besides, China has middle class of 400 million people and another 300 million will added to it till 2030. It will boost domestic consumption which would increase spending and purchasing powers of the ordinary people.
Third, China is busy in fostering bilateral and multilateral partnerships. During the month of July 2020 only, China organized two very important forums — China-Arab Cooperation Forum and a special meeting of China-Latin American and Caribbean Countries’ foreign ministers.
The message given through these forums was that China is cooperating with the world and ready to enhance cooperation.
China is also on the course to sign a huge deal worth US$ 400 billion with Iran.
China has also announced to extend US$ 1 billion for the Latin America and Caribbean countries to facilitate them to access COVID-19 vaccine. China and EU are also moving to finalize a trade and investment deal.
In conclusion, USA needs to realize that it always enjoyed respect due to its fundamental principles of Multilateralism, Cooperation and Co-existence in diversity. Hence, it needs to come back to these principles and face competition and learn to co-exist with the emerging powers. Cooperation is only way that leads to prosperity and help tackle all problems. The confrontation will not serve the purpose of anyone, neither of the U.S. nor of China.
Author is the Director, Asia Study Center, SDPI.
