The transatlantic partnership remains strong and resilient despite big differences between the United States and European Union over trade, says Ronald Gidwitz, US ambassador to the EU, in an interview for The Parliament Magazine. The US-EU relationship is built on “our shared values of democratic governance, respect for human rights and rule of law,” says Gidwitz, arguing that Washington and Brussels currently face many similar challenges, including confronting Russia, China and Iran, as well combating terrorism, developing energy security, countering fake news, and responding to the current Covid-19 pandemic. Both China and Russia “represent significant threats to our democratic systems and the rules-based international order. And both countries have exploited the Covid-19 epidemic to advance their own narrow interests,” he warns.
On China, Gidwitz says that “we are all awakening to the reality that Beijing is a rival that poses a fundamental challenge to the international rules-based order.” Washignton has been warning its European allies for a couple of years of the security threat posed by using Chinese technology in the roll out of 5G infrastructure. Therefore, the diplomat welcomes bilateral talks between Brussels on future relations with China, saying, “I’m thrilled that we have agreed to a joint China dialogue, we are currently in discussions on when to launch this effort.” Gidwitz words come as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has voiced his support for the UK’s tough stance on Beijing, urging the international community to create an alliance against China’s “bullying.” During his recent visit to the UK, Pompeo praised Britain‘s response to China’s controversial new national security law for Hong Kong and slammed Beijing’s tightening grip on the semi-autonomous city.
And as the world has seen “Hong Kong’s freedoms crushed” and China “bully its neighbors,” US secretary of state, in a speech on Thursday (23 July) at the Richard Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California, urged all „free nations“ to strive to change Communist China before „Communist China will change us.“ In a provocative speech likely to worsen the already fraught US-China relations, Pompeo also alluded to Nixon’s concern about what he had done by opening the world to China’s Communist party in the 1970s, saying that Nixon had been prophetic. “President Nixon once said he feared he had created a ‘Frankenstein’ by opening the world to the CCP,” Pompeo said. “And here we are.” On Friday (24 July), China announced that it had ordered the US consulate in Chengdu in southwestern China to close, in response to the US shuttering a Chinese mission Houston earlier last week.
