Poison versus Poison

Both China and the US are now facing the coronavirus pandemic. The coronavirus might prevent their bilateral trade conflict from escalating but not from becoming more complicated. Back then when China had been very busy dealing with the pandemic, the US had felt safe for not having been infected by it, both sides had engaged in some kind of media war in cold-war style.

President Xi's first appearance in Hubei province, which has been under lockdown for weeks. Photo: Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP

Now, when the pandemic has reached the US and is growing to such extend US president Donald Trump had to declare national emergency, the US and China started to play another game between them – the conspiracy game on the origin of the coronavirus.

US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien blamed China for reacting slowly to the disease outbreak, probably costing the world two months to prepare for it. His real messages are "China covers up the whole story."

China's official reaction came promptly. A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry tweeted that the US lacked transparency and suggested that the US military might have brought the coronavirus to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. The US State Department summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest against these comments. This diplomatic dissent intensifies tensions between the two global powers over the outbreak and made their conspiracy game with conspiracies. It is also the Poison-versus-Poison game.

Conspiracies are always more fantasy than truths. But instrumenting conspiracies can create huge political, psychological and real effects. Conspiracies have been used by both the US and China because the core point here is who should or must bear the whole responsibility for the spreading of this pandemic. Meeting domestic demands and defending national reputation in the world left China no choice but to retaliate against the US with the same weapons the US has used against China. Conspiracy versus conspiracy.

The US government used allegations of this kind to put all responsibilities on the Chinese side to get rid of domestic pressure and to deal with growing risks for Trump's chance to be re-elected in the coming November presidential election. Now, there are more than enough reasons to believe that this pandemic might become more dangerous for Donald Trump in this year's election than whoever from the Biden/Sanders duo emerging as presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. And that scenario is a real possibility and not any conspiracy.

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