Because China is questioned and hated by many countries | World

According to Beijing, President Trump appears to focus on trade policy and trade deals, rather than human rights and Chinese foreign policy, two topics that Beijing has long wanted to avoid. CNN identified October 31.

More broadly, President Trump’s isolationist “America First” foreign policy has allowed China to demonstrate its global leadership in a variety of key policy areas. from the climate crisis to free trade.

But instead of generating goodwill, China chooses to intimidate its global partners and becomes engulfed in the “great hammer” rhetoric of nationalism. And instead of becoming a global superpower to compete with the United States, China loses its reputation around the world.

Opportunities for China

Less than a week before Trump took office in January 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping took the stage in Davos, Switzerland, at an event that appeared to be the beginning of a golden era for China and China. Beijing international influence.

In his speech to global liberal elites at the World Economic Forum in the Alps, Switzerland, Xi urged countries to stay away from protectionism amid Trump’s remarks. eloquent “America First” policy.

Xi’s speeches were well received by economic leaders. In Xi’s introduction to Davos, the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, said: “The world is looking towards China.”

Daniel Russel, the US undersecretary of state in charge of East Asia and the Pacific under President Barack Obama, said the anti-globalization rhetoric of Trump and the opposite of Xi makes China seem like the potential world leader to replace the United States.

“While Mr. Xi has been proclaiming that China is the great protector of the global system, Mr. Trump attacked him terribly and delivered an extremely nationalistic message. That magnifies the contrast and widens the gap, ”said Russel, now deputy director of the Asian Institute for Social Policy.

In many areas, President Trump’s policies open opportunities for China to play a larger leadership role in global affairs. The US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in January 2017 opened the door for China to promote a regional trade agreement that it led.

Five months after Trump announced his withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change, Xi told the meeting of Chinese Communist Party leaders that China would be the “torchbearer” on the matter.

When President Trump began to separate the United States from its allies, asking long-time partners to cover defense costs with the United States, China seized this opportunity to get closer to regional superpowers.

China and Japan plan to make their first state visit in a decade, unfreezing diplomacy since a territorial dispute against the Senkaku / Diaoyu island group in the East China Sea in 2012.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced in June 2017 that the deployment of a US missile defense system in South Korea, which China strongly opposed, would be delayed.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, the leader of one of the United States’ closest allies in Asia, said he “loved” Xi Jinping.

“I believe that when the Trump administration arrived, the rest of the world saw China as a country with the potential to play a stable role in leading the world through the next turbulent period in a few years. “said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute (an independent UK-based consulting firm).

For Xi, those were a memorable 12 months. The Chinese government scores internationally, builds close relationships with the new US president, and scores strategic victories in trade, foreign policy, and climate change. In short, “the Trump administration is a gift to the Communist Party of China,” Tsang said.

Deflection and collapse

Yet in October 2020, nearly four years after Trump took office, China’s global reputation fell to its lowest level in years.

The results of the survey that the Pew Research Center (US) released on October 6 showed that the Chinese government received negative reviews in the top 14 countries surveyed by Pew, including Australia and Canada. , English, German, Japanese and American.

In 2002, up to 65% of US citizens surveyed had a positive assessment of China. By 2020, this figure will drop to 22%. Up to 74% have negative comments about China.

The COVID-19 pandemic, first recorded in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, severely damaged Beijing’s reputation as countries around the world struggled with the number of cases. increase. Many government leaders and officials around the world, including President Trump, have accused Beijing of mishandling the pandemic, that is, underestimating the severity of the virus during the early stages of the outbreak and letting the epidemic spread abroad (prohibiting Chinese travel from one location to another, but it allows them to travel abroad).

Even before the pandemic broke out, China’s reputation began to decline, especially in Western countries.

Over the years, Australia has always been close to China, which annoys the West. Australia is a close ally of the United States, but Australia’s biggest trading partner is China. When the United States has an isolationist leader like Trump, China has a better chance of seducing Australia.

However, in 2018, when the Australian government enacted laws against foreign interference, Beijing was angered, considering that the new law was directed at them. The leaders in Canberra are isolated from Beijing, visas are frozen, exports of high-value goods to China suddenly undergo more customs inspections, more closely, an Australian writer accused of message cockroaches.

In 2017, more than 60% of Australians had a positive opinion of China, according to the Pew survey. For 2020, this rate is only 15%.

A similar situation occurs in relations with Canada. Relations between Canada and the United States were strained under Trump because he clashed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over immigration and trade. Instead of getting closer to Trudeau, however, Beijing caused relations with Ottawa to freeze deeply.

After Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese tech conglomerate Huawei, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, in late 2018 at the request of the United States, China arrested two Canadian men. These are businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig. These two people were later accused of spying on state secrets.

In 2019, Canada blocked Canadian beef and rapeseed exports, causing confusion among Canadian companies operating in China.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and China on October 14, Prime Minister Trudeau spoke strongly about China’s foreign policy and human rights record. “We will remain fully committed to working with our allies to ensure that China’s approach to forced diplomacy is not seen as a strategy for its success,” he said.

In India, the 2014 rise of populist Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also an opportunity for China to seduce India, an increasingly powerful regional superpower that the United States has long flirted with.

In 2018, India and China resolved a border dispute. Xi and Modi met at an informal summit for two days in Wuhan. Two people drinking tea, walking in the landscaped garden.

But two years later, the relationship between India and China fell to the lowest level in years. A border dispute in June that killed more than 20 Indian soldiers brought Beijing’s military and diplomatic rivals closer to New Delhi. They are the United States and Japan.

India has banned a host of popular Chinese apps, including TikTok, which dealt a severe blow to the Chinese tech industry.

Associate Professor He Yinan, from the Department of International Relations at Lehigh University (USA), said that in the past three years, when Beijing has not started diplomatic battles with other countries, they often reduce friction or threats. scare them. “China’s behavior really angers many countries,” he said.

Beijing is also facing mounting criticism from the international community on a number of controversial domestic issues, including dealing with human rights and dissent, civil rights in Hong Kong, especially landlords. means of military expansion in the East Sea.

Associate Professor Jessica Chen Weiss of Cornell University (USA) said: “Anti-China sentiment is at its highest in decades … and Beijing knows it.”

However, China is still confident in its economic strength, saying that a market of 1.4 billion people is attractive enough that the United States and countries that depend heavily on China’s economy do not separate them. Going back to the division of the Cold War era, said Daniel Russel. “If you look at the problem from a Chinese perspective, would you ask the question of the financial goose that lays golden eggs?” He said.

Thai An (according to CNN)