Is COVID-19 a Game Changer for Transatlantic Narratives on China?

Four experts on both sides of the Atlantic give their perspectives on whether the pandemic has changed national understandings, narratives, and foreign policy debates on China.

Torrey Taussig: US-Europe’s Persistent Lack of Trust a Significant Hurdle

Without the pandemic, a transatlantic narrative on China would entail a shared understanding of the challenges China poses to both US and European prosperity, security and democracy. From this starting point, the US and Europe might then develop coordinated approaches on issues such as whether to allow Huawei to develop 5G telecommunication networks and how to invest in viable alternatives; addressing Chinese unfair trade practices and reforming the WTO; and how US and European development actors can finance and implement sustainable alternatives to China’s Belt-Road Initiative.

But in the COVID-19 world, this kind of transatlantic narrative toward China is inhibited by two factors - deep divisions and lack of trust in the transatlantic relationship, and disagreements in Europe over how to get tough on China. On the second factor, the pandemic has admittedly led many European citizens and their leaders to view relations with China through a more sceptical lens.

There is widespread commentary that the Chinese Communist Party suppressed information about the virus during the initial outbreak in Wuhan province. The resulting health and economic crises raised calls to nationalize supply chains and reduce dependencies on Chinese pharmaceutical and technological products. Claims that China used an aggressive disinformation campaign to sow doubts about the origins of the virus has led to several rebukes from European policymakers.

Yet the first factor - a persistent lack of trust in the US-Europe relationship - remains a significant hurdle to developing a transatlantic narrative on China, and has only been exacerbated in the COVID-19 crisis. President Trump’s erratic response to the pandemic at home and abroad has deepened scepticism in Europe about American leadership.

His decision in March to enact a travel ban from Europe without even informing European leaders was a bad start. Since then, the US administration has castigated China at the expense of unity in the G7, announced a decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), skipped out on the EU-hosted drive to raise funds for vaccine research, and said it will withdraw a sizeable number of US troops from Germany in a decision that appears both hastily made and politically motivated.

COVID-19 could have served as a wake-up call for international cooperation and an impetus for transatlantic alignment on a range of issues, including China. Instead it has become another ‘own goal’ for the Trump administration in its efforts to move European allies toward a tougher and more coordinated position on China.