By Alhaji Mustapha Javombo
State power and national interest are the major inducements why states aspire for supremacy in global politics. While foreign policy plays a major role in defining the bilateral foreign relations between nations, state leadership equally contribute in cementing or breaking the foundations of foreign relationships.
The present tension between the U.S. and China bilateral relations has its origins dating back to 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was established under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong who defeated the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-Shek. Historical records shows that Taiwan and Tibet has always been and continue to be part of China but the U.S. has always opposed and continues to oppose the government of the People’s Republic of China by supporting Taiwan and Tibet against the Chinese government to date. During the Japanese invasion of China in World War II, the U.S. supported Chiang Kai-Shek’s exile government in Taipei setting the pace for a limited U.S. – China foreign relations for several decades.
This limited foreign relations between the U.S. and China continued in 1950 during the Korean War outbreak which also saw the U.S. together with the UN backing South Korea against North Korea while China supported North Korea and the conflict only came to a halt through the armistice peace agreement in 1953.
The year 1971 witnessed the beginning of a new U.S. – China relations when China invited the U.S. Ping-Pong Team together with journalists to first visit China marking the beginning of an era of Chinese diplomacy with the U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. China later gained a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council supported by many African governments. Several other diplomatic efforts have been made by both countries in maintaining global peace and security.
The One China Policy has been sighted severally as the key focus of the Chinese government in terms of foreign relations and the U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping played major roles in fostering improved U.S. – China relations. The U.S. President Bill Clinton’s foreign policy, ‘Constructive Engagement’ also saw calm returning again among the two nations towards an improved relation until 1996.
The U.S. – China Trade Relations Act of 2000 also brought in new hope in bilateral relationship between the two countries and it paved the way for China to join the World Trade Organization in 2001. This led to a steady increase in trade gains between the two countries from $ 5 billion to $ 231 billion surpassing Mexico after Canada in 2006.
The year 2010 saw China becoming the second largest economy surpassing Japan with 1.33 trillion slightly above Japan’s 1.28 trillion in 2010. The U.S. trade deficit with China also rose from 273.1 billion to 295.5 billion in 2011.
President Xi Jinping’s focus on rejuvenating China and the establishment of a new type of great power relations fostered a new model of foreign relations between the U.S. and China during the Sunny-lands Summit in 2013, USA.
The present growing tensions between the U.S and China indicates that the two countries have gone through thick and thorns but records show that the U.S. has most times been on the offensive while China has always tried to maintain a balance in terms of its peaceful global rise and economic fortification.
Claims over China’s role in the South-China Sea has left the U.S. with the motive of triggering conflict even when China has repeated stated that their presence and on-going constructions are mainly for civilian purposes.
The 25 percent increase on Chinese goods by the Trump administration has been viewed by Chinese authorities as ‘‘trade bullying’ cautioning that it might cause global market unrest. The further arrest of the Huawei Chief Financial Executive Meng Wanzhou by Canadian authorities on allegations of violations of trade sanctions against Iran in December 2018 with the U.S. asking for her extradition have also escalated the existing tensions between the two countries.
On November 27th 2019, President Trump’s signing of the Bill, the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democratic Act supporting the Hong Kong protesters came amid growing tensions. China opposes the move, imposes sanctions on some U.S. based organizations and suspends the U.S. Warship visits to Hong Kong. Beijing also passes the new National Security Law while U.S. ends Hong Kong’s special status with the U.S.
The coronavirus pandemic which took the whole world by surprise has also been used by the U.S. to mimic China with President Trump referring to the virus as Chinese virus, blaming the WHO as being biased towards China while China claims the virus was brought to China by a U.S. official. This deteriorating situation has led to the expulsion of journalists from the two countries with China expelling 13 U.S. Journalists working for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post while the U.S. also reduced the number of Chinese Journalists from 160 to 100 from five state media run outlets termed as foreign mission outlets.
The recent closure of the two countries consulates starting with the U.S. closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston on the grounds that it is the hub of Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft and Beijing’s retaliation by closing the U.S Consulate in Chengdu on similar grounds shows the level of deterioration in the foreign relations between the two countries. It is now clear that the long standing relations between the U.S. and China have been crippled and things have started falling apart. The paradox what most critics could not conceive is the fact that mighty U.S. is now crying for global help in a wrestle with little China after it had triggered the first shot. The foreseeable cold war between the U.S. and China that has already begun appears that someone is already loosing and now calling for global rescue, but who is at fault remains the biggest question unanswered.
