It is now explicit that geopolitical competition is part of US-China relations and it gave birth to a menace that this bilateral relationship could further divide the globe by opening the way for another competitive era. Tensions between both the giants, the US and China escalated under former President Donald Trump, who used tariffs and sanctions to try to address longstanding complaints about China’s unfair practices. The geopolitical game is getting intense under the 46th United States president, Joe Biden as well.
Following the G7 Summit, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders declared that China presents a global security risk at their annual summit in Brussels. The traditionally Russia-focused military alliance for the first time shifted its focus to China, asserting the need to respond to Beijing’s growing power. The final communiqué, signed off by leaders of the 30-member alliance, asserts that China’s “stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order”. The newly passed NATO 2030 strategy demands that the alliance member states spend more resources on dealing with China’s growing global influence. In response, China warned NATO that it will not sit back in the face of any challenges. A statement posted few days back on the website of China’s mission to the European Union said that Beijing did not pose a “systemic challenge” to any country and added NATO should not exaggerate China’s military power.
Meanwhile in the three-day summit of the Group of Seven (G7), the leaders of the wealthy democracies criticized Beijing over human rights in its Xinjiang region, called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy, and demanded a full investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China. The G7 communique said: “with regard to China, and competition in the global economy, we will continue to consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy.” In response, China’s embassy in the UK accused the G7 of “baseless accusations”. “Stop slandering China, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and stop harming China’s interests,” a spokesman said on Monday.
China’s technological rise has led to anxiety in the United States over the possibility that China will dominate technologies of the future. Therefore, the Biden administration has increased the intensity of competition in technological sphere by banning or blacklisting Chinese firms and barred American people and companies from doing business with such companies. It includes, the extension of Trump-era blacklisted 59 Chinese firms, including the communications giant Huawei through presidential order, seven Chinese supercomputing entities stating that activities of these are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the US, the US Federal Communications Commission, in March, designated five Chinese tech firms, including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision and Dahua, as an “unacceptable risk” to national security.
The Strategic Competition Act of 2021 was amended to provide more aid to Africa and Latin America to counter China’s financial aid to these countries, grant greater funding for US technology industries, and strengthen the US International Development Finance Corp to compete against the China Development Bank, which has played an instrumental role in Beijing’s signature Belt and Road Initiative.
The game of sanctions on China has also been started by the west and its allies. The EU sanctioned four Chinese individuals, including a top security director, for alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Similar steps were followed by the US, UK, and Canada. The US, on the same day, sanctioned two Chinese government officials in connection with what they called the “serious” human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
In retaliation, China recently, in June 2021, passed a new law to counter US and EU sanctions. the National People’s Congress (NPC), approved the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law. The new law offers a legal foundation for China to counter US and EU sanctions over trade, technology, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang. As per it, individuals or entities involved in making or implementing discriminatory measures against Chinese citizens or entities could be put on an anti-sanctions list. Those on the list may be denied entry into China or be expelled from the country. Their assets within China may be seized, detained, or frozen.
Through a narrow lens, the game of seeking a US military base in Pakistan which is wrapped in countering Afghan Taliban is Chinese centric to a larger extent. US authorities requested military base access from Pakistan during the Afghanistan Doha peace process but Islamabad remained noncommittal. The military strategists know very well that it won’t benefit Pakistan in the long run. Pakistan cannot risk annoying China, which has become Pakistan’s major arms supplier and financer since 2016, when US-Pakistan military cooperation ended. The presence of foreign troops in the region would not only worry Beijing but Tehran and Moscow would also get upset. If Pakistan allows the US military bases in the country, China will interpret it as an extension of the US Indo-pacific strategy, which they consider a China containment strategy and may roll back the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and withdraw other facilities including soft loans, military cooperation and diplomatic support.