MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st July, 2020) The European Union nations, which are now focusing on regenerating their national economies, are not willing or interested in transforming the already damaging trade war between Washington and Beijing into a devastating conflict, experts told Sputnik, in reaction to the US' recent calls for a hypothetical coalition against Beijing.
Earlier in July, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said Washington would like to build a coalition of countries to confront China and alter is behavior, but each country should come to its own understanding of how to confront Beijing to protect their interests.
Pompeo arrived in London for talks with US Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on the alleged threat posed by China, among other issues.
"We want every nation to work together to push back against the Chinese Communist Party's efforts in every dimension that I believe described to you today. And that certainly includes the United Kingdom, includes every country. We hope we can build out a coalition that understands this ... We'll work collectively to convince the Chinese Communist Party it's not in everybody's interest to engage in this kind of behavior," Pompeo said in a press conference in London.
After such a statement, fears emerged in the media that after calling for a coalition, the US may modify the trade war with China into a hot war. Yet, Josianne Cutajar, who is a member of the delegation for relations with China in the European Parliament, does not believe that the confrontation between the two supereconomies would ever turn into an open conflict.
"Several of the US' allies in NATO are members of the European Union focusing on regenerating their national economies, and are not willing or interested into transforming a trade war that is already damaging, into a devastating war," Cutajar, who represents the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the parliament, told Sputnik.
Out of the 27 EU member nations, 21 are currently the members of NATO.
In mid-July, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the introduction of the new security law in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is not a reason to stop dialogue with China, although European countries must find a common response to the matter.
MULTINATIONAL SOLUTIONS REQUIRED
According to Cutajar, taking into account "the recent unorthodox unilateral and protectionist approach" adopted by the US in the past few years, the mentioning of coalitions may in itself be a "positive" sign as it may hint at an acknowledgment that the international problems require multilateral solutions.
"If building a coalition transforms a diplomatic row into an open military confrontation, the coalition would have failed miserably," she said.
Cutajar believes that the outcome of Pompeo's calls will depend on those nations which agree to form such a coalition. Yet, one cannot compare a potential US-led coalition against China with the once it already made in Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq, she added.
"The US and China are two countries heavily engaged economically that are decidedly moving away from each other. The intervention of third states with diplomatic ties with both the US and China should lead to reverse this decoupling, induce dialogue and ensure long-lasting peace," the parliamentarian concluded, adding that both nations have "equally grand global ambitions."
Meanwhile, Ren Xiao, a professor of international politics at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, does not believe either that the recent comments from Pompeo about the coalition would mean the transformation of diplomatic rows between two global economies into something more serious.
"It means an escalation of diplomatic rows, not necessarily, actually far from, military conflict," he told Sputnik.
According to the expert, it is unlikely that the US would lead a full-scale war against Beijing, yet, the recent statements from Pompeo still are "worrying," and "will make the matter worse."
The relationship between Washington and Beijing began to spiral into what has been labeled a trade war when US President Donald Trump rose tariffs on Chinese goods in 2018. Since then, the two have exchanged multiple rounds of duties.
When the coronavirus pandemic began, with the first outbreak recorded in China's Wuhan city last December, Trump claimed that the virus was created in a local laboratory by the Chinese government and then released into the world, either accidentally or deliberately. Beijing has consistently denied the allegations.
Recently, the confrontation spiraled further as China adopted a controversial national security law to expand its power in Hong Kong last week, to which the US responded by withdrawing Hong Kong's preferential trading partner status and suspending defense equipment to the autonomous region.
