U.S., China moving closer to a cold war

WASHINGTON — The coronavirus pandemic, in an unexpected but potentially fateful twist, has moved the United States and China a big step closer to a new cold war.

It has strengthened hardliners in both countries, and political pressures stemming from the pandemic are making it harder for leaders to back away from escalation.

For two straight months, as the virus killed thousands and wreaked economic havoc around the world, officials of the two superpowers have heaped blame on each other to divert attention away from the pain of the crisis and from their own missteps.

Early on, President Trump frequently referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus.”

Administration officials have quietly pressed for international censure of China’s culpability in the health crisis. And they have seized on the medical emergency to attack the network of manufacturing and other economic ties that have grown between the two countries over the past 40 years.

Beijing, through its stateowned media and political operatives, has slammed the “racist and xenophobic” statements and actions of America’s “irresponsible and incompetent” political elites.

It has gone so far as to spin allegations that the American military started the coronavirus epidemic.

Meanwhile, the tariffs that Trump imposed on billions of dollars in goods from China — and the countertariffs from Beijing — remain in place, adding to the cost of trade at a time when many businesses are struggling to stay afloat.

The punitive duties also have affected badly needed protective medical gear such as face masks, gloves and goggles, many of which are made in China.

“It was revealing of just how hostile U.S.China relations have become that they couldn’t even bring themselves to just kind of hold their noses and reach out to one another to coordinate their efforts very well,” said Susan Shirk, chair of the 21st Century China Center at UC San Diego.

Shirk and other China specialists haven’t given up on the relationship. She and dozens of other China experts and former politicians and diplomats across the political spectrum released a joint statement Friday calling for renewed efforts to cooperate.

They urged Washington to find “the resolve to work together to contain and defeat the virus at home and abroad.”

“China’s factories can make the protective gear and medicines needed to fight the virus; its medical personnel can share their valuable clinical experience in treating it; and its scientists can work with ours to develop the vaccine urgently needed to vanquish it,” the statement said.

Whether either side is prepared to back away from confrontation remains in doubt.

Both Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have pressing political reasons to keep playing hardball.