(Newswire.net— May 9, 2020) — Tensions between America and China have been going on for years, but the global pandemic and the upcoming U.S. presidential elections have only intensified that rivalry. This week, the verbal war has reached a new high. What is the American strategy?
The President of the USA, Donald Trump, made a turn this week in the campaign for re-election in 2020, pointing a finger to Beijing as the main opponent in US presidential elections, BBC reports.
“China will do anything they can to have me lose this race,” he told the Reuters news agency.
Mr. Trump’s increasingly harsh rhetoric against Beijing marked a new phase in attempts to reshape elections whose appearance was altered by the corona virus pandemic. And this announced turbulent times for the already turbulent relationship between the two largest economic powers in the world.
From the beginning, Trump’s campaign was supposed to deal mostly with the prosperity of the American economy, however, this approach failed. Polls show declining support for the president in key constituencies over criticism of his performance in resolving the coronavirus crisis.
This is where China, the source of the pandemic and the first country accused of acting too slowly in stopping its global spread, enters the scene.
Mr. Trump’s administration strategy was to attack former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumed Democratic candidate for the 2020 elections, but now it has shifted focus towards China. His allies in the America First Action (AFA) political committee have been rolling out advertisements lashing “Beijing Biden” for “leading the charge” of Washington elite too willing to accommodate a predatory China.
Biden responded with an ad accusing the president of trying to dodge blame for his own slow reaction to the pandemic, and because he was too conservative according to the original information that came from China about the virus.
A common element in these drastically different views is that both campaigns believe it is a good political move to claim that their man is the strongest to oppose Beijing.
As the election approaches, Trump suggests that he will listen more to ‘hawks rather than pigeons’ from his cabinet, and he will be supported by a large number of Republican lawmakers who encourage the administration to oppose China.
The No 1 Coronavirus China hawk Sen. Tom Cotton, has gone so far as to accuse the Chinese government of deliberately allowing the virus to escape beyond its borders, “because if they suffer economic consequences, they will not allow the rest of the world to continue.”
“Their malign, deliberate actions to send the virus around the world by allowing international travel to continue in December and January represents just how little regard for human life they have,” Senator Cotton said.
But his call for the supply borders to be withdrawn to the United States will provoke reactions from both parties since the pandemic highlighted American dependence on China in terms of drugs and medical equipment, both of which are currently in high demand.
Crucially, there is concern that an anti-Chinese rhetoric will strengthen the atmosphere of xenophobia that is already growing due to the pandemic, which will result in an increase in verbal and physical attacks on Americans of Asian descent.