Speculative U.S. antipathies about China are losing traction

**Editor's note: **Azhar Azam works in a private organization as a market business analyst and writes about geopolitical issues and regional conflicts. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC) ended on Sunday without any consensus on whether the world or the West itself was becoming less Western, "Westlessness," a term coined in the MSC Report 2020 and theme of this year's gathering that comprised hundreds of leaders and thinkers from politics, international organizations and civil society to discuss preeminent global crisis and future security challenges.

The primary objective of the summit, the state of the West and to forge an international "strategic community" to resolve global conflicts through peaceful means, was indeed smashed halfway into the conference once the U.S. Secretary of States Mike Pompeo defied the motto by asserting that the West was winning and debilitated international security cooperation over his redirected focus on China.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper followed Pompeo up and munched all his time in disapproving the Chinese communist party and the country's economic and political system. So akin to his teammate partner, Esper was also preoccupied with China's growth and its mounting rapprochement with the neighboring and worldwide nations.

American officials' use of MSC multilateral forum– tailored to discuss the global security issues such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kashmir, Libya, Palestine, Venezuela, Ukraine and Yemen – to cast China as a rising threat, bashing Chinese ruling party and boasting of supplying medical supplies to coronavirus victims was passably dismaying and counterproductive for the participants.

The brazen and speculative U.S. antipathies about China are therefore distinctly losing the traction by the time as the countries from the North to the South Pole, have spurned Washington's hate-preach toward Beijing and reaffirmed the longing to strengthen their strategic communication and mutual trust to push their partnership with China to a new level as well as applauded Chinese role in global peace and development and its efforts to combat coronavirus epidemic.

International solidarity with Chinese people grappled with the pneumonia, the concurrence between Beijing and Berlin to jointly uphold multilateralism and speed up cooperation to promote China-EU investment, wide-ranging participation in BRI and Germany's endorsement to one-China policy and its sovereignty and territorial integrity – are some of the many paradigm shifts in global community's pragmatic approach to deal with China.

While the desperate diplomatic shots of the U.S. representatives, to exploit the COVID-19 outbreak to slur Beijing and reroute the universal support in their favor by rebuking Chinese model, botched horribly – the U.S. secretaries' comments additionally contradicted the U.S. President Donald Trump's willingness to improve American relationship with China.

Of late, Trump has characterized Washington affairs with Beijing "perhaps the best relationship we have ever had with China, including with President Xi" – crowing that the landmark phase one deal will defend the U.S. workers, protect its intellectual property, bring billions into the treasury and open new markets for the U.S. products. He further praised China's "counterattack on the Coronavirus" and execution of drug dealers.

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) talks with Munich Security Conference Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger at the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, February 15, 2020. /Xinhua Photo

Both the U.S. officials are reluctant to embrace Trump's convivial and pliant perception over China, which would allow the sides to sit down and have a serious dialogue in finding a conducive way for either of them in order to "live in harmony and interact in peace despite the different social systems," to put in the words of Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Bragging about providing drug provisions to China for battling out coronavirus by the U.S. is lamentable. Beijing largely relies on its strength to tackle the epidemic, though it has welcomed and thanked the support of the international community. So far, some 33 foreign governments have extended medical assistance to China but it was the U.S. that has shut its mouth off in offering humanitarian support to the Chinese pneumonia survivors.

American hostility toward China is rousing Europe to become more cynical of the U.S.' adamant attitude that has consistently forced them to completely decouple from the world's second largest economy amid their unrelenting efforts to find a middle conduit to work between the two economic powerhouses so as to protect their economic and trade interests.

A day prior to U.S. officials' rhetoric, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier took a jab at Trump's "Make America Great Again" and "America First" campaigns and panned Europe's "closest ally" for pursuing its own goals "at the expense of neighbors and partners" and discarding "the very concept of the international community." German foreign minister Heiko Haas was also critical of the "uncomfortable reality of what a withdrawal of the U.S. from military engagement and from international treaties means for us."

After Pompeo rejected European pessimism about the U.S. retreat from the global stage and refuted criticism on the transatlantic relationship, French President Emmanuel Macron gainsaid him downright and warned "There is awakening of the West" and called for more German involvement. "We cannot always go through the United States, no, we have to think in a European way as well," the President of the now only nuclear state in Europe said.

The latest developments rediscovered Europe's increased perception about the changing nature of the internal order and its pursuit to seek an independent foreign policy where no foreign country including the U.S. would have the pervading clout to eclipse its economic interests with other economies of the world.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at [email protected].)