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Donald Trump did himself a disservice with his riot speech at the UN. The president of China was able to re-style himself as a responsible statesman.
Signs between the United States and China point to an escalation. In his speech to the UN General Assembly, the president of the United States once again impressively demonstrated how dramatically poor relations are between the two great powers. In it, Donald Trump launched an aggressive all-out attack on the People’s Republic and called on the world community to de facto punish Beijing for spreading the coronavirus, “the virus of China.”
Of course, Trump is in the final weeks of the US election campaign. Part of his speech against China also addressed the national audience. On Tuesday, the number of deaths per American crown reached the 200,000 mark, that is, more than three times more deaths in a few months than the Vietnam War on the American side had claimed in several years. Trump, pressured by his disastrous handling of the pandemic, needs a guilty party. But dismissing the attack as campaign noise is too short.
The trade war, the origin of the coronavirus, the situation in Hong Kong, the mutual closure of consulates: the conflict between the two great powers has been shaking for a long time. It is a struggle for power that has many facets: geopolitical, economic, technological.
In doing so, Trump overlooks the fact that some of the US influence has been spent cheaply with his America-First policy, and that China is benefiting from this loss of authority. One look at the United Nations is enough to see how the balance of power has changed. While the United States has turned its back on the World Health Organization, the Human Rights Council, and the cultural organization Unesco, it canceled the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran Agreement and reduced or canceled contributions to other institutions of the UN, China is expanding its influence in the world organization, with staff in management positions, more commitment and money.
This is another reason why Trump did himself a disservice with his riot speech at the UN. Soon after, China’s head of state Xi Jinping was able to stylize himself as a responsible statesman in his speech, even if there are worlds between his flattering rhetoric and his brutal power politics. On the screen, however, he called on the international community to show solidarity and cooperation in the face of the crown crisis, and warned of the “culture clash trap.” In any case, in the speech duel between Trump and Xi, the point goes to China.
