US and China Disagreements Prompt Calls for Global Unity

BEIJING, KOMPAS.com — The ongoing disagreements between the US and China have rattled global politics, but it has also prompted the need to establish unity among world governments.

A German official warned of a potential “Cold War 2.0” between the US and China as the two countries continue to square off with each other.

Kenya’s President has called for global unity to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The two years since the US and China began a war of words and entered a trade war has resulted in weak global trade.

The conflicts between the world’s two largest economies span far beyond the economy.

It includes issues on Hong Kong, Chinese Muslims, spying accusations, and control of the South China Sea.

Other world governments are caught in the middle and have been trying to defend their own interests amid the ongoing spat between the US and China.

Germany

Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to preserve trade and cooperation on global warming but says security law tightening Beijing’s control over Hong Kong is a “difficult issue."

The potential disruption from the Hong Kong security law of the autonomy Beijing promised to the former British colony is no reason to stop talking but is “a worrying development,” Merkel said Monday.

Europe’s biggest economy has yet to take a final position on Chinese tech giant Huawei despite US pressure to exclude its equipment from next-generation telecom networks as a possible security risk.

“China is an important partner for us but also a competitor,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement after a videoconference Friday with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

Peter Beyer, the government’s coordinator for trans-Atlantic cooperation, expressed alarm in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group.

“We are experiencing the beginning of a Cold War 2.0,” Beyer said. He criticized both sides but said, “the US is our most important partner outside the EU, and that is how it will stay.”

France

President Emmanuel Macron calls President Donald Trump “my friend” but is trying to avoid riling Beijing.

France has not echoed Trump’s criticism of Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus, but legislators applauded Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week when he condemned abuses of minority Uighurs in China’s northwest.

Le Drian mentioned “mass arrests, disappearances, forced labor, forced sterilizations, the destruction of Uighur cultural heritage.” He said France has asked that the camps be closed.

“All these practices are unacceptable,” the minister said. “We condemn them.”