Why the White House failed to bully Beijing's friends

By: Azhar Azam

Over the past few months, the Trump administration has been going ballistic by sharpening an extensive and unprovoked campaign toward China. Since Beijing is the world's second-largest economy and a rising military power, the wanton effort would only end up in ripping the global economy and world peace.

The White House launched this dissipated push with great fanfare and bullied the countries across the planet to endorse and embrace its madly pursued decoupling drive. But these nations have grasped the sinister U.S. idea and begun to defy it openly.

On August 7, Pakistan's permanent ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, told Newsweek that the trade rifts between China and the U.S. are "natural." Nevertheless the ulterior aim of the U.S. – to encourage separatism in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, as well as assertive actions in the South China Sea, play with the crucial Chinese interests and Beijing's resistance is understandable.

In so doing, the envoy and president of the UN Economic and Social Council represented Pakistan's objective position that the U.S. should resume talks with China to settle bilateral differences and prevent it from routinely violating globally established and binding international law of non-interference and non-intervention.

Akram believed there was no "rationale of a confrontation" between the two major powers and urged the sides to respect "each other's systems, each other's vital national interests and each other's serenity and territorial integrity" in a veiled reference to Washington's passing of inflammatory bills and destabilization measures in areas relating to Chinese sovereignty.

Seeing all the U.S. covert and overt efforts have cut no ice with China's economic growth, worldwide adherence to its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and commitment to protect rights and security in regions and the South China Sea, the American federal government imposed sanctions on almost a dozen Hong Kong officials, including Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

While one of Hong Kong's senior officials, targeted by the restrictions, mocked the ban and offered to send 100 U.S. dollars to U.S. President Donald Trump so he may freeze his asset, the Guardian dubbed it relatively unusual to directly sanction the leader of a region or country, other than Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

American actions to transgress the international rules-based order set a dangerous precedent for the world and pose a serious threat to global peace, security and prosperity. Drawing inspiration from the diabolic U.S. attitude, more countries might suspend the process of peaceful consultations and follow the path of hostility to get a head start in bilateral disputes.

Spotting such a threat to the region, Akram stated that China is not a U.S. adversary and expressed his deep incredulity in Washington's growing military relations with New Delhi – which last year exacerbated tensions with Beijing and Islamabad through unilaterally changing the status quo of the disputed Indian-held Kashmir, including Jammu and Ladakh, and now is politicizing overall economic and trade cooperation with the former in the wake of the Himalayan standoff.

Unfortunately, Washington felt no regrets for its historical slippery and tottery behavior toward Islamabad and instead of addressing its demurrals; the State Department spokesperson cast a shadow on Pakistan's contributions to bring peace in Afghanistan, urging it "to take sustained and irreversible action to dismantle militant groups…without distinction."

The U.S. has long worked to make waves between Beijing and Islamabad by throwing its unsought inkling on transparency and debt issues regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project under Chinese BRI. Beholding it as hypocrisy, Akram lashed out at Washington.

"If you don't want the Chinese to do it, then you do it," he said. "But don't tell us not to do it with the Chinese when you can't do it yourself, It is like a dog in the manger," the ambassador said. "The U.S. should, as you say, walk the talk. If the United States has real concerns that Chinese projects are unfair on terms that are not good enough, well, it should provide alternatives."

In fact, there is a stark contrast between Pakistan and the U.S. approach. Islamabad, having suffered over 150 billion U.S. dollars of economic losses and sacrificed more than 70,000 lives in the U.S.-led war on terror to make America secure, places Beijing at the core of its foreign policy, recognizing it a dependable and sincere friendship that has always extended full support to the South Asian country in the face of all economic, defense and natural challenges.

The U.S., on the other hand, fantasies to only use Pakistan for its heavy-handed objectives against China and sees the partnership between the two staunch friends, including for the stability and economic growth of Afghanistan, through the lens of orthodox distrust.

It is therefore quixotic on the part of Washington to expect Islamabad – seldom acknowledged for its relentless contributions and frequently experienced American drone strikes in breach of its sovereignty – to chop its economic kismet and disenchant a time-tested friend, Beijing, which it believes is pivotal for its economy and national security.

The U.S. needs to divest itself of China-paranoia. Washington, instead of circumnavigating the globe to temp and sponsor nations in confronting Beijing or forcing them to abjure ties with an economy that is the key to the global economic growth, should accept Chinese significance on the international stage and start all over again a fresh round of bilateral negotiations to discover the secrets of the global embrace of its peaceful economic rise.

*This is one of my opinion pieces that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)":
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-12/Why-the-White-House-failed-to-bully-Beijing-s-friends--SSbcAGt3uU/index.html