BEIJING: China’s decision to take reciprocal measures against several US media outlets in the country shows that China-US relations are deteriorating rapidly, and tilting into a new Cold War that the US started, analysts warned.
The current situation, which stems from the long-term ideological conflicts between the two countries, urged the US side to correct its wrongdoings in suppressing China. Otherwise, a sharp escalation in souring relations is in sight, said analysts.
They also warned that the move should not be interpreted as a common diplomatic dispute, but a strong signal and warning from Beijing.
China announced early Wednesday that it would take countermeasures against restrictive measures placed against Chinese media agencies in the US, effective immediately.
Given the friction in ideological fields between China and the US, Beijing has apparently escalated its countermeasures, indicating a further shift of its policies toward Washington from passive responses to more aggressive ones with more reciprocal measures expected, a Beijing-based source close to the matter told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“This is a long-term accumulation of all the contradictions in the ideological field between the two, and as the pandemic evolves, China’s leading role in the world will become more significant, leading to further competition in ideology and social and political paths that China and the US respectively follow,” the source said.
However, the Chinese foreign ministry’s decision to implement such rare and aggressive measures in restricting some US media also showed that Beijing no longer intends to avoid this conflict but face it bluntly, the source noted.
China’s move on Wednesday was not merely a tit-for-tat response to US’ restrictions on Chinese journalists but an accumulated answer to Washington’s relentless ideological attack on Beijing in recent years, said Mei Xinyu, a research fellow at the Ministry of Commerce’s Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, noting that the non-stop smearing of China by top officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reached an almost unprecedented level since former US President Richard Nixon visited China nearly five decades ago.
“Even the most reasonable person has a temper, not to mention the fact that you are constantly pointing a finger at the nose of a great power. It would indeed be abnormal if there was no fightback,” Mei told the Global Times on Wednesday, adding that the US has singlehandedly dismantled the rare platform offered by the recent trade agreement on which the two countries could try to ease tensions.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
