Allies without alliances

Less than 100 days before the US presidential election, the US administration, represented in the person by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has attempted to create some kind of alliance against China.

Graphics: Global Times

During his recent tour to Europe, Pompeo slammed Beijing's tightening grip on the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. The world has seen "Hong Kong's freedoms crushed," he said. Furthermore, the US' top diplomatic official went so far to cast China as an aggressor, saying Beijing "is bullying its neighbors", making illegal maritime claims and covering up the Covid-19 outbreak to further its own interests. He also described the Chinese Communist Party's behavior towards coronavirus as unforgivable.

Referring to tensions between China and Southeast Asian countries and India, he said: "You can't make claims for maritime regions that you have no lawful claim to. You can't threaten countries and bully them in the Himalayas.” Then, he came to his real purpose by saying "We want to see every nation who understands freedom and democracy… to understand this threat being posed by the Chinese Communist Party.” And "We hope we can build out a coalition that understands the threat," which means firstly understanding the threat and secondly coming together on a common front against China.

At the first glance at the moment, the US seems already to have the UK, Canada and Australia siding with it. All the three showed a tough stance towards China recently, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the WHO, Taiwan, Xinjang, Hongkong, Huawei and the East Sea (internationally known as the South China Sea). In these aspects, the US already has its companionship and support but the road is still long for announcing the US dream international coalition against China.

The fact is that many countries and partners in the world share the US’ new assessments of today's China and support the US’ new policy adjustments towards this country. But they all have been trying as much as they could to refrain from siding in any official alliance led by the US against China. The real and main reason is that China is an extremely important political and economic partner for them and that they have to be prepared for what if the US again makes changes to its policy towards China, especially at the time when it’s unknown who will be the next US president after the election on November 3. All of them openly or silently support the United States, but all prepare for themselves a contingency plan for any eventuality. The United States will not be able to form a global coalition against China, but it will certainly win partners as allies without alliances. And that is already very bad news for China.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by Ambassador Tran Duc Mau are of his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Hanoitimes.