KARACHI:
From the initiation of the trade war in 2018 and the blacklisting of major Chinese tech companies such as Huawei, to the escalating war of words and diplomatic spats, the US-China rivalry is once again in the spotlight as Beijing has been forced to confront US ideological prejudice and single-minded obsession with sidelining Chinese growing influence. As the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calls out for a greater cooperation between Australia, India and Japan to contain the Chinese regional clout in the Indian Ocean Region and strengthen their already formed alliance, analysts have asserted that such statements depict US’s Cold War mentality.
There is no doubt that Donald Trump’s administration has been stridently obsessed with China’s growing economic and political power that back its mission of regional connectivity and economic development through the BRI and CPEC ventures. Therefore, they are trying to contain China through all policy measures available, whether it is through emboldening India with an Indo-US strategic partnership against Pakistan and China, disturbing the fragile balance of power in South Asia and polarising the Middle Eastern region. However, by doing so what instead comes to the limelight is that a fading superpower that has a role in almost all destabilising conflicts in the world is now bending to subvert a rising power that has alleviated millions out of poverty.
If history be the guide and the present coronavirus situation be taken into consideration, it is not productive for the two leading economies to lock horns at the backdrop of a wrecked global crisis. It is high time for the US to mend its ways, communicate its genuine concerns with Beijing through backchannel diplomacy and restore its soft image and hegemony without resorting to belligerence and conflicts.
