‘India, US in war of ideas with China’
NEW DELHI: Former top United States (US) diplomat Nicholas Burns on Friday dismissed suggestions China is winning the battle against the Coronavirus, saying the country has a “fearful leadership” intent on preserving its power and incapable of accommodating the Chinese people’s desire for freedom. Democracies such as India and the US are waging a “battle of ideas with China” and should work together to “make it observe the rule of law”, he said during a video conversation with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
The conversation was part of a series between Gandhi and global and Indian thought leaders to discuss the Covid-19 crisis and its consequences. As under secretary of state for political affairs during 2005-08 and the state department’s third-ranking official, Burns led negotiations on the India-US civil nuclear agreement. His remarks come in the backdrop of a weeks-long border stand-off between India and China and intensified rivalry between the US and China.
Responding to Gandhi’s question on why there has been almost no global cooperation on the Covid-19 crisis, Burns said: “…this crisis was made for the G20. It was made for Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump to be working together, all of our countries, for the common global good.”
This hadn’t happened, he said,
“because Donald Trump doesn’t believe in international cooperation. He’s a unilateralist…And Xi Jinping chose to compete with Trump.” He added that the US and China were at the “heart of the problem” and hoped they will better work together more effectively in any future crisis.
Burns said: “I think a lot of people right now are saying… China’s winning the battle of the Coronavirus, that it’s gaining hearts and minds. I actually don’t see that.“He added that China certainly had “extraordinary power”, which was ”probably not equal to the US militarily, economically, politically yet”. “But it’s gaining,” he added.
Describing China as an “authoritarian country” without the “self-corrective part” of the national DNA seen in India and the US, Burns said the leadership in Beijing is “fearful”.
The governments of India and the US should together promote democracy, freedom and rule of law around the world, said Burns, who served in the US government for 27 years.
Gandhi said the partnership between India and the US worked because both were tolerant nations but that DNA of tolerance has now disappeared.
“I think why our partnership works is because we are tolerant systems. You mentioned that you are an immigrant nation. We are a very tolerant nation...We are supposed to be open but...that open DNA is disappearing…I don’t see it in the US and I don’t see it in India,” he said.