The foreign ministers of Group of Seven (G7) couldn’t issue a joint statement yesterday (26.03.2020) because the United States of America demanded they utilised the term “Wuhan Virus” in the final text.
Mr. Trump plays “all in” in his known strategy of blaming China, in particular, and foreign countries, in general, for most of the North American problems.
At the international stage, the American presidency has majorly lost its credibility, let alone its leadership, except in countries governed by far-right populists, e.g., Brazil, Hungary, Poland.
Internally, with thousands of corpses popping up all over the American territory, it’s not clear how voters are going to interpret the current coronavirus crisis.
Here in Southeast Asia, China and ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) have already banded together in the fight against Coronavirus.
The ASEAN-China special session on COVID-19 held on March 4th brought to light China’s assistance and expertise to other countries battling the outbreak.
““the meeting was remarkable for tackling not only the health dimension of the crisis but also its social and economic impacts, as well as how technology can be harnessed to mitigate the fallout. Turning the crisis into an opportunity, it is possible for Beijing to promote this cooperative template to its Northeast Asian neighbours, Japan and South Korea, and to other regions like the Middle East and Europe where the virus is fast making headway.” (2)
The war of narratives will go on, and there are many plays to be played on the chessboard. Nonetheless, the recognition by the World Health Organization (WHO) of its unprecedented efforts to stem the spread of the virus and its technical and material support to fight the virus abroad, likely are going to strengthen China’s soft-power in Southeast Asia.
(1) Image: Foreign Ministers of 10 ASEAN Member States and China and ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi to the Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Coronavirus Disease in Vientiane, Laos on February 20th, 2020. Credit: VGP News, Vietnam.
(2) PITLO, Lucio Blanco. The Diplomat. March 04th, 2020 https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/china-asean-band-together-in-the-fight-against-coronavirus/
