The United States has accused China of meddling with the world order and has vowed to protect the international law, principles and agreements that govern the world. Beijing wants fairer rules of the business and has dismissed these allegations by denouncing the U.S. of designing the international order to establish themselves as the hegemonic force. With China, one of the largest economies in the world, seen and presented as a threat, a new cold war is brewing!
Anthony Blinken, the secretary of state, delivered a speech at the Asia Society held at The George Washington University with the theme of “The Administration’s Approach to the People’s Republic of China” in which Blinken criticized the Chinese administration for trying to mend the rules of the game. Starting off by stating a renewed commitment towards a more “equitable”, “democratic” and “prosperous” future for all, he called it a product of an international world order: “To build that future, we must defend and reform the rules-based international order – the system of laws, agreements, principles, and institutions. Its founding documents include the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrined concepts like self-determination, sovereignty, the peaceful settlement of disputes. These are not Western constructs. They are reflections of the world’s shared aspirations.”, he added while terming Russia and China as threats to these universal values. He termed the Russian invasion of Ukraine to a failure as it strengthened the resilience of the Ukrainian people, brought closer the NATO allied countries and united the world to stand against Moscow which violated these universal principles of sovereignty, peaceful settlement of disputes and so on.
The state secretary, however, termed the People’s Republic of China “the most serious long-term challenge to the international order” which has both “the intent” and “the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power” to put that intent into practice. He further stated that since its inclusion in the global economy 50 years back, China has benefitted the most from the “stability and opportunity that the international order provides” and now China is posing a threat to the same. He accused the Beijing of perfecting surveillance technology and employing it inside and outside of China in a bid to exert more control over people and to “supress democracy”, of advancing in the South China Sea and of brutal violations of human rights in Xinjiang region, in Tibet and Hong Kong. While China terms these issues are internal matters, Blinken reiterated that they “go against the core tenets of the UN Charter” while all countries must adhere to.
In response, Chinese foreign ministry issued a detailed rebuttal of Blinken’s statement by equating it with the promotion of “China threat” narrative, an interference in China’s internal issues and harming the Chinese foreign interests. In reply to the allegation that China is a threat to the international world order and that the United States will “defend the international law, agreements, principles, and institutions that maintain peace and security, and protect the rights of individuals and sovereign nations.”, the Beijing responded by denominating the “so-called international order designed to serve the US’s own interests and perpetuate its hegemony” and calling the U.S. to be the largest disruptor of world order.
On other point that “The US is not looking for conflict or a new Cold War. It doesn’t seek to block China from its role as a major power, nor to stop China from growing its economy or advancing the interests of its people.”, the Foreign office of the People’s Republic of China responded by a reality check that “Despite its claims that it doesn’t seek to block China from its role as a major power, nor to stop it from growing its economy, the US is actually deploying its domestic and external resources to unscrupulously contain and suppress China.”
To support this rebuttal, the following points were outlined:
- Without producing any credible evidence, the US government uses national security as a catch-all pretext and all its apparatus to wantonly suppress and sanction Huawei, restricting its products’ entry into the US market, cutting off its access to chips and operating system, and coercing countries around the world into banning Huawei from their 5G rollout.
- In violation of the principle of fair competition and market economy and international trading rules, the US seeks to hamstring competitive Chinese hi-tech companies under all kinds of trumped-up charges. To date, it has placed over 1,000 Chinese companies on various sanctions lists, subjected biotechnology and artificial intelligence technologies to enhanced export controls and stringent investment review, and sought to ban Chinese social media platforms including TikTok and WeChat.
- Under the pretext of protecting human rights, the US has fabricated misinformation and disinformation concerning Xinjiang
- The previous US administration, in grave violation of WTO rules, waged a massive trade war on China. Based on its own Section 301 investigation, it imposed three rounds of steep tariffs on about 360 billion US dollars’ worth of Chinese imports, while the current administration is looking for similar measures in times of rising commodity prices.
- The US has a record of grossly interfering in China’s domestic affairs on issues concerning China’s core interests, including Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. It seeks to undermine China’s security and stability by, both overtly and covertly, condoning and supporting separatist activities.
- The bipartisan innovation bills being debated in the US Congress, while professing to enhance US competitiveness, see China as a perceived rival. “China” appears more than 800 times in the text, which is packed with provisions detrimental to China’s interests.
- In a bid to maintain its power and predominance in international institutions, the US has attempted to smear and block the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind and the initiative of advancing Belt and Road cooperation, among others.
- Clinging to a Cold War mentality and the hegemon’s logic, the US pursues bloc politics, concocts the “democracy versus authoritarianism” narrative, cajoles other countries into forming exclusive cliques, strengthens the Five Eyes, peddles the Quad mechanism, puts together AUKUS with the UK and Australia and ramps up bilateral military alliances, in a clear attempt at countering China.
- The US pushes NATO to insert itself in Asia-Pacific affairs, fan the “China threat” narrative in the bloc’s new strategic concept, and include in its Madrid Summit such US allies in the Asia-Pacific as Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Australia, in a bid to build an “Asia-Pacific version of NATO”, which would disrupt security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
- The development of state-to-state relations should be based on equality, mutual respect and win-win results. China-US relations have reached an important crossroads. The US should stop viewing this relationship through a Cold War, zero-sum mindset, follow the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, and reflect in its action the five assurances it has made to China.
A new cold war is being waged in the face of Russia-Ukraine war and China wanting a greater piece of the pie in the global order, and an end to the hegemonic role of the United States which bends the rules of the business to its advantage by resorting to the ideas of peace, democracy and sovereignty even in the face of continued oppression and interference all over, including unfair trade rules and an undemocratic global power sharing formula. China is challenging that with greater global presence, regional connectivity, trade diplomacy and through an ambitious development agenda to provide an alternative to much of the developing world.
