Between soft and rough diplomacy ... Where is the US-China escalation heading?

Tensions in US relations with China have taken a new turn, linked to diplomatic tools, both in their soft, calm and ruthless punitive image.

The media, political or military escalation between the two countries has not stopped in recent weeks, the most visible manifestation of which was a coordinated attack by President Donald Trump's administration leadership on China.

This coincided with the sending of more American military naval vessels to the South China Sea, before Washington declared the illegitimacy and expansion of China's expansion in maritime areas in dispute with its regional neighbors.

Close diplomatic missions

Trump has not ruled out his country’s closure of more Chinese diplomatic missions in the United States. Washington has escalated the degree of tension with the announcement by the US State Department of closing down the Chinese consulate in Houston, the largest city in the state of Texas and the fifth largest US city aimed at "protecting American cultural property and Americans' private information."

Newspaper reports linked the closure of the consulate to the accusation by the US Department of Justice of espionage for Internet pirates that they said were related to Chinese intelligence who sought to steal the secrets of ongoing experiments regarding the vaccine and vaccine of the emerging corona virus (Covid-19) in a number of American laboratories.

A statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that "the Vienna Convention provides for respect for diplomats of the host country, and it is their duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that country."

News reports also indicated that a Chinese researcher, who claimed to be a student, had to join an advanced research program at Stanford University in California, despite being a researcher working for the Chinese army in the field of medical research.

She was investigated for spying under the cover of conducting scientific research, and the US authorities believe that the Chinese government provides a "safe haven" to its clients in the United States, and is trying to prevent their prosecution in court.

Since May, Washington has introduced new rules that restrict the granting of student visas to Chinese graduate students who are believed to have links with the Chinese military.

A firm message to the Americans

At the same time, the media has become a Sino-American confrontation, Washington has initiated the treatment of official Chinese media treatment of foreign embassies and reduced the number of journalists allowed to work within the United States to 100 journalists from 160 journalists. In response, China expelled about a dozen American media reporters.

And Chinese Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai appeared on CNN television a few days ago to confirm that "America should make a fundamental choice about whether it can live in peace with modern, strong and prosperous China." This phrase represented the summary of the ambassador's conversation with Freddy Zakaria The illustrious broadcaster with "CNN", and many experts saw that the Chinese message is essentially non-diplomatic.

In response to a question about the allegations of some in the West that China under President Xi Jinping had become more repressive and more willing to expand, Tsui responded by saying, "People must fully realize the realities of today's world." The ambassador added, "We certainly have a legitimate right to build our country into A modern, strong and prosperous country like other countries in the world. "

"I think the fundamental issue of the United States is very simple," he added. "Do you want the United States ready or willing to live with another country with a very different culture and a completely different political and economic system ... in peace for cooperation in many of the global challenges facing us all?" ".

Soft diplomacy

China has the largest embassy in the United States. Several years ago, it launched a new embassy in the heart of Washington, to become the largest embassy in the American capital.

"China has brought all construction materials, even sand and cement, from China, and all construction workers and engineers came from China for the purpose of building the embassy," a diplomatic source told Al Jazeera Net, fearing that leaks and listening devices would be leaked if the construction was left to a non-Chinese company.

The sheer size of the embassy reflects the rising powers of China, as the Russian embassy is neither the largest nor the most important.

China is also trying to spread its influence in the American capital through soft and quiet diplomatic tools, among which is the "China Daily" newspaper, which is the official spokesman of the Communist Party of China in the United States.

The newspaper is spread in the English language, where newspapers are sold in most American cities, and it has held several partnerships that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars with the "Washington Post", "Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times" in exchange for free distribution once or twice a month with those newspapers. . There are also funds sold in many squares and streets of Washington, DC.

The China Daily newspaper is distributed free of charge to the offices of the 535 members of Congress, leaving dozens of copies in each member's office for distribution to his assistants and advisers.

According to observers, the Americans read on the pages of this newspaper a propaganda of a political nature about technological progress and the legitimate rights of China in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He knows any problems of his own.

 Vow more

The FBI Director Christopher Ray had made unprecedented accusations against China in public in a speech to the Hudson Institute in Washington on the seventh of this month.

Ray showed a bleak picture of China’s interference through its clients in a massive campaign of economic espionage, theft of US companies ’information, data, and research, in addition to carrying out illegal political activities, and using bribery and blackmail methods to influence American businessmen to achieve Chinese political goals.

"We have reached the point where the FBI opens every 10 hours a new anti-espionage case related to China. Of the approximately 5,000 anti-spyware cases that are currently being worked out across the country, about half of them are related to China," Ray said.

In light of the foregoing, many experts do not expect that China and America will follow calm steps, especially with the approaching date of the American elections, which has become hostility and confrontation with China one of the most important issues of electoral foreign policy.