One against open. The accusations that the United States and China reproach refer to the darker times of bilateral relations between the two superpowers.
Economic supremacy
The health and economic emergencies are overwhelmed by an increasingly exposed arm wrestling: commercial and especially political supremacy are at stake.
The latest accusations by the American Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, are direct and lashing. “”There is substantial evidence that Coronavirus originated in a Wuhan laboratory.” And then again: “”It is not the first time that we have been hit by a virus because of errors in Chinese laboratories.””
From Beijing the reply is dry. The People’s Daily, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party, replies as follows: «It doesn’t matter how many times a lie is repeated or how accurately it is fabricated. What remains is ».
The war of duties
What is taking place between the United States and China is a political war, a continuation of that of tariffs that began some time ago.
Europe, in this arena of confrontation, took the field in no particular order. Macron’s government summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest the spread of falsehoods issued in Beijing about “public health workers in France who abandon patients and make them die.” While Germany, China’s first trading partner, expressed “amazement” at the pressure exerted on German officials to express “positive comments on the aid” sent by Xi Jinping.
In the days of the highest health alert in all EU countries that, with the lockdown, will witness a dramatic drop in GDP and stocks on the stock exchange, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general, asked the allies to “protect their giants cheap from the acquisitions of the Chinese ». An intervention that reveals how crucial the issue of economic supremacy is, even in the midst of a health emergency.
The escalation of tension
Donald Trump’s statements, which praised Xi Jinping for managing the epidemic in January, seem light-years away. In the last 40 days, everything has changed: on March 27 the US Defense intelligence agency, the spying service under the orders of the Pentagon reverses the route and includes the hypothesis of “accident and serious negligence”, which surpasses the initial contagion theory escaped from the Wuhan fish market. And a few days later, on April 7, the director of National Intelligence who coordinates all the espionage plants, orders that investigations into the origin of the virus be intensified.
On April 30, Trump announces: “I have evidence, but I can’t tell you” they have top priority. An escalation culminating in the statements by Mike Pompeo that talks about the Report signed by “five eyes”, or the joint intelligence work between five allied, English-speaking countries. United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The report highlights the disinformation campaign that Xi Jinping would have implemented.
The Dragon replies with the theory of the virus brought by an American soldier during the World Military Games, held in Wuhan between 18 and 25 October, where 10 thousand athletes from 140 countries participated.
The American election campaign contributes to exacerbate the controversy and to confuse public opinion; the eventual re-election of Trump, in the next month of November, also or perhaps above all plays on the credibility that the United States will be able to earn in the Covid19 affair, aggravated by the death toll which will not be lower, according to estimates, to 100 thousand deaths.
