New normal: In this image taken from video provided by VTV, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during an online meeting with Asean foreign ministers at their annual talks last month. — VTV via AP
AS the present world order weakens, the mega confrontations have appeared more likely: On its post-Soviet revival quest, Russia has become increasingly assertive in Euro-Mediterranean theatre and beyond. The Sino-American relations are increasingly adversarial, with escalating frictions over trade, advanced technology, human rights, and global strategic influence.Currently, both sides – as president of the United States Council of Foreign Relations Richard Haass states “are developing scenarios for a possible war”.
The two countries’ rhetoric has grown so hostile that its speed and severity is unprecedented for the post-WWII period, rather belonging to the forgotten vocabulary of 1910s and 1930s. (E.g. referring to China as “country of kung flu” or to the US as “trigger happy nation”, calling the Covid-19 “China virus” or “US Army brought pathogen”, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman referring to the US leadership as “elements deluded by the Capitol Hill metastasis” while the US state secretary calls the Chinese Communist Party “rogue actor”, and then in return Secretary Pompeo gets proclaimed as “the public enemy of mankind” – just to name a few from the long list of heavy verbal fire exchanges between the two.)
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