"Unilateral Action": Why China Accused the US of Violating the World Order

US actions have led to chaos and humanitarian disasters. This is stated in the report "Violation of Human Rights in the United States - 2019", published by the press office of the State Council of the PRC.

“In order to maintain its global dominance, America adheres to a policy of unilateral actions, thereby violating the world order and the system of international relations, which are based on the principles and ideas set forth in the UN Charter. When someone, at any opportunity, “leaves the group”, “breaks the contract”, tries to relieve himself of international responsibility, shakes the foundations of global mutual trust, then he “imposes sanctions” and “takes up arms”, many regions of the world are sinking into chaos and face severe humanitarian disasters, ”the document says.

In addition, the report assesses the observance of the rights of US citizens. The upcoming presidential elections in the United States, according to the authors of the document, have turned into “money games of the rich,” who gained great political influence by financing the election campaigns of various candidates. In turn, this situation distorts public opinion and destroys the foundations of American democracy, the PRC State Council document says.

In addition, Chinese analysts say that "behind the mask of a prosperous and strong America, in fact, hides a harsh reality in which the rich and the poor are divided by a huge gap."

“The gap in income levels continues to widen, health care and education costs are constantly growing, and social security is covering less and less, the life of the poorest segments of the population is extremely difficult,” the authors of the report emphasize.

Mutual claims and the status quo

Experts note that the criticism that Beijing subjected Washington to the pages of the report of the State Council of the PRC is only the next stage in the geopolitical confrontation of the two powers. In recent months, both states regularly exchange claims in a wide variety of areas.

So, on Friday, the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Zhao Lijian on his Twitter did not rule out that a new type of coronavirus could get into Wuhan, which became the epicenter of COVID-19, due to the fault of the US military.

“When did the zero patient appear in the USA? How many people are infected? Which hospitals (are they in. - RT )? Perhaps it was the US military that brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Share your data! The US must explain everything to us! ” - the diplomat wrote.

• Beijing resident
• Reuters
• © Aly Song

According to Fox News, after the publication of this tweet, the Chinese ambassador to Washington, Tsui Tiankaya, was summoned to the US Department of State. According to media reports, Assistant Secretary of State David Stillwell called the acclaimed tweet “a blatant disinformation campaign” on coronavirus.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the Chinese authorities of concealing data related to the spread of coronavirus.

In addition, US authorities reacted sharply to Beijing’s decision to revoke the accreditation of The Wall Street Journal journalists who published an anti-Chinese headline. In response, official Washington imposed a limit on the number of employees in the Chinese media in the United States.

“Our goal is reciprocity. As in other areas of relations between the USA and China, we strive to create long overdue equal conditions. We hope that these actions will push Beijing towards a more equitable and reciprocal approach to the American and other foreign press in China, ”commented Pompeo.

The United States also accused Beijing of trying to “rewrite the world order.” In a speech at Johns Hopkins University in early February, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Beijing was violating the sovereignty of its neighbors in order to gain strategic advantages. In addition, China was named the main threat to US national security in the published budget for fiscal year 2021.

In turn, in mid-February, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Gen Shuang said during an online briefing that the United States is a "hacker empire." So he commented on the information that the intelligence services of the United States and Germany for half a century have been gaining access to secret correspondence in more than 120 countries.

“The facts once again prove that the USA is the largest state that conducts wiretaps in international cyberspace and in the full sense of the word is an empire of hackers. Their wiretapping operations have already reached the point of real outrage, lawlessness and lawlessness ... But at the same time, they are trying to make themselves victims of cyberattacks, repeatedly playing the play when the thief shouts: “Stop the thief!” These are silly and stupid tricks, ”said Shuang, speaking to reporters.

Another source of controversy between Washington and Beijing is the situation around Chinese telecommunications companies, which the US suspects of espionage. First of all, the US authorities mean Huawei, which is accused of “illegal and deliberate appropriation of intellectual property” and in respect of which a number of restrictive measures apply.

Political analysts recall that the decline in relations between China and the United States occurred after Donald Trump came to power. The President accused China of currency manipulation, theft of intellectual property and technology. A full-scale trade war unfolded between the powers.

"The United States under Trump began to actively fear that Chinese goods penetrate different countries of the world, and thus China becomes a real competitor not only in terms of GDP, but also in technology, so the American president decided to limit the growth of the Chinese economy by different methods," Director of the Center for East Asian and SCO Research Alexander Lukin noted in an interview with RT.

However, after several rounds of negotiations, the parties were able to reach a consensus, which Trump called a “breakthrough”. According to political scientists, after the signing of the trade deal on January 15, there was hope for a normalization of relations between the two states. According to the agreements, in the next two years, Beijing is supposed to purchase US goods worth a total of $ 200 billion. At the same time, “severe restrictions” are introduced to lower the RMB exchange rate.

• Donald Trump and Xi Jinping
• Reuters
• © Kevin Lamarque

However, according to analysts, despite the agreement, the confrontation between Beijing and Washington has not disappeared.

“The signed first part of the trade transaction had an impact on the Chinese economy, but the rivalry between Washington and Beijing continued. A temporary status quo has now been established between the countries, but in terms of information and ideology, the same fierce confrontation continues as before, ”said Andrei Manoilo, doctor of political sciences, member of the Scientific Council under the Security Council of Russia, in an interview with RT.

“It will be harder to make concessions”

Commenting on the relationship between Beijing and Washington, experts recall that certain problems in this area have been brewing for a long time.

“In recent years, between the United States and China, of course, there have been contradictions, but at the right time the parties smoothed them out. Under Trump, relations simply collapsed, largely due to his uncompromising actions and style of imposing his conditions on opponents by force, ”says Manoilo.

In turn, the deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of RUDN University Nikita Danyuk believes that the main reason for the difficult relations between the countries lies in the economic field.

“One of the main directions of Trump as president is an attempt to maximize the export of American goods, to minimize the trade deficit. In this case, politics is a consequence of the economy. In addition, the White House is aware that China, due to its economic power in the future, can claim to become another “center of power,” Danyuk believes.

Given the current situation, experts believe that tension between Washington and Beijing will increase.

According to Andrei Manoilo, despite a number of concessions made by the Chinese side, in the long run Beijing will “regain lost ground”, which, in turn, may lead to another round of contradictions with Washington.

A similar point of view is shared by Alexander Lukin. He expects the disagreements between the two powers to deepen, as negotiations on the second part of the trade agreement "will be much more difficult."

“It will be more difficult for Beijing to make concessions because Washington puts forward unacceptable conditions, for example, so that US centers control the implementation of reforms in China,” Lukin said.

At the same time, Nikita Danyuk draws attention to the fact that economic claims against the PRC are increasingly becoming political.

“China under Trump is one of the main threats. It is spelled out in various documents, military doctrines. Washington’s claims are that economically powerful Beijing began to claim a more active role in world politics, forcing other players to reckon with their position, ”summed up Danyuk.