The United States and China: How the rivalry between the two powers may be leading the world to a new Cold War | The NY Journal
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The messages of Trump and Xi in the UN General Assembly have once again highlighted the differences between the two powers. How do they affect the world order?
The United Nations (UN) is celebrating its 75th anniversary as the foundations of the global order that created it at the end of World War II are shaking.
Multilateralism has been disrupted, as Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary General, has pointed out.
President Donald’s Putting America First Policy Trump has sidelined his country in agreements global like the one signed in Paris to curb climate change or the nuclear pact with Iran, while China ostensibly tries to present itself as the new champion of the UN.
But growing Chinese influence comes at a price And while Beijing is spending more money to fund the World Health Organization and other agencies, it expects more influence in return.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, referred this Monday to the founding moment that the organization faces.
He stressed that those who founded it knew the value of unity, because they had experienced a war and another pandemic, referring to the Second World War (1939-1945) and the so-called Spanish Flu (1918-1920).
This virtual year’s meeting of world leaders has been marked by concern about what the rivalry between Washington and Beijing could mean for global stability.
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, has not hidden this, who in his recorded message said that the world cannot be left at the mercy of the pulse between the two powers.
A relationship that gets worse
Washington and Beijing have been embroiled in recent years in disputes ranging from trade to technology, and the relationship between the two is increasingly sour.
Trump raised the tone in his message to the General Assembly and protested against what, as on other occasions, he has called “the Chinese virus.”
Less than 40 days before the presidential elections, criticism of Beijing is a central theme of the Trump campaign. There appears to be a concerted effort to deflect criticism of the president for his handling of the coronavirus epidemic by attacking China for spreading the disease.
It’s possible a military conflict?
Could the competition between the United States and China for world supremacy lead to a military conflict? The UN Secretary General is clearly worried about the future and warns against a new “Cold War”.
“We are moving in a very dangerous direction,” Guterres warned.
“The world cannot afford a future in which the two largest economies divideton the world in a great fracture, each with its own business and financial rules, and its own internet and artificial intelligence capabilities. An economic and technological division implies the risk of reaching a geostrategic and military division. We must avoid this at all costs, ”he added.
This open discussion about the consequences of a “great rift” shows how rapidly the world is changing and how diplomats are struggling to keep up with it.
Chinese President Xi Jinping declared in the virtual debate that his country “it has no intention of waging a Cold War or a Hot War with any country ”.
This is an eloquent message at a time when Trump is raising the tone toward China, fueling speculation about where this will all lead.
A veteran diplomat told me on Tuesday that the general debate at the UN had always been viewed as creative chaos.
While world leaders greet each other warmly and hold private meetings, royal diplomacy used to do its job. Now it’s just chaos, said this diplomat sadly, wondering rhetorically who is in charge and which leader has more than short-term vested interests.
The pandemic has triggered injustices in the world, said the secretary general.
Guterres added that lpeople suffer and our planet burns.
He also asked the rulers of the world to take covid-19 as a wake-up call and prepare for the challenges that come.
But just an hour after Guterres said that solidarity actually works for the benefit of countries, Trump asserted that all leaders should follow his example and put the interests of their respective countries first.
If he is reelected, his commitment to unilateralism will be heightened and the UN will be further relegated by Washington.
Will US engagement with NATO also weaken? If Joe Biden is elected president, the tension between Washington and Beijing may ease, but the rivalry will continue.
The world is realigning and the question is how the old multilateral order will adapt (and who will lead it).
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