Normally around this time of year, New York City is usually in a high state of business due to the United Nations General Assembly in town. Well, due to obvious reasons its quite different in 2020. For the first time in the 75 year history of the United Nations, the United Nations General Assembly has been absent of political leaders, as the Covid-19 pandemic has made the UN General Assembly its victim alongside other events and more, as instead of of physical gathering that locks New York City down for weeks, the world leaders sent their speeches via prerecorded videos. One or two people for each of the 193 member states were permitted with mask wearing and socially distanced in the UNHQ, as the normal festivities of the UN General Assembly are placed on hold, for this years session at least.
However despite the new changes happening in this years session, it does not to any degree take away from the intensity that is normally seen when leaders of the world speak and clash with other world leaders. One perfect example of this is this past Tuesday, between the United States and China. In a recent article from the New York Times, a prerecorded speech from President Trump sees the President blowing his own trumpet about his own actions in the Covid Pandemic, and even further calling out China on the global stage by telling the UN to hold accountable as he put it “the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world.” He spoke about other topics such as isolating Iran, withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, and the peace deal between Israel and the two Gulf Arab, but the dominant aspect of the speech was blaming China for the covid pandemic even mentioning it as the “China virus” and covering up the virus.
President Xi Jinping of China followed with a prerecorded speech of his own, stating that the pandemic crisis is a shared one by everyone and denounces any politicization and stigmatization of this global crisis. In addition, he also took jab at the US according to a BBC News Article, that without naming the US, Xi stated “no country has the right to dominate global affairs, control the destiny of others, or keep advantages in development all to itself”, which coincidently China has been accused of also. Ironically both leaders fail to come into reckon with their fallacies as Trump goes on to state how the US will lead the charge against the pandemic by developing treatment, vaccines, and going further to say “We will end the pandemic, and we will enter a new era of unprecedented prosperity, cooperation and peace,” which is ironic is because the US currently has far more confirmed cases than anyone else close to 7 million and over 200,000 deaths. Meanwhile President Xi describes his fellow China as “described China as a benevolent power that does not wish ill on anyone” which is ironic given China’s behavior in the South China sea, the detentions in Xianjiang, the issue with Taiwan and Tibet, and the political repression in the Hong Kong region. He also swiped at Trump at his isolationist approach to diplomacy and trade even describing what Trump is doing as “trying to fight it with Don Quixote’s lance” and failure to go with history.
The US-China faceoff took center stage if the GA session, as there clearly was clearly rifts between the two superpowers which has some concerned that such rhetoric posed by the two leaders will lead to a new cold war on the horizon, with the UN of course looking lost in this situation as two powers standoff to each other in a verbal war. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that this divide is a very dangerous situation that must be avoided at all costs between the two powers as it is evident many global consequences are on the verge of manifesting should things intensify.
My personal thoughts are that fuel is currently being added to the fire from both leaders in this case as both leaders had colorful things to say against each other that made it the center of attention for the assembly. The US is making efforts to stay the leader of the world order, however China is making its claim to be a superpower to rival with the US in every aspect. Trump and Xi’s showdown at the UN definitely will raise eyebrows on what’s to come for both nations, and the world following suit. Is another cold war truly on the horizon? It may be the case as relations between the two are stagnant and looks to be that it may get uglier depending on what goes on in the future. Only time will tell of course.