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It's a shock for Beijing to realize that reporting on a political initiative taken by the entire administration against China is more than just a Washington hearsay.
Since June, the diplomatic relations of the United States and China have rapidly deteriorated on many fronts, not only commercial, but also military and political.
It may not be the beginning of the next cold war, at least not yet, but the relations between the two parties have been plunged into an unprecedented thrill.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to meet with Trump at the annual G20 summit in Buenos Aires in November to find a solution. Policy experts on both sides are worried that it may be too late to find a way back.
"There has been a tidal shift in America in proportions that I have never seen from my past to get away from old notions of engagement," CNN Orville Schell, director of CNN, told CNN. Center on American-Chinese Relations of the Asia Society, based in New York.
"I think we are in the last act where a notion of a more cooperative relationship could be saved."
The Chinese threat
A year ago, few people would have imagined seeing bilateral relations collapse to new heights in the world's most important diplomatic relations.
In the 1990s and 2000s, three peoples – Taiwan, Tibet and Tiananmen (the massacre) were considered the most controversial subjects in US-China relations. While these thorny issues remain, they have disappeared over the years.
Now, as Taiwan reappears on the White House radar, two other Ts dominate the icy bilateral relations – trade and, more importantly, Trump.
In a speech to a Washington think tank last week, US Vice President Mike Pence launched a massive attack on Chinese policies ranging from human rights violations in his country to allegations of electoral interference in the United States.
"As we speak, Beijing uses a whole-of-government approach, using political, economic and military tools, as well as propaganda, to strengthen its influence and serve its interests in the United States," Pence said in his speech.
Many observers have compared Pence's remarks to Winston Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech and predicted the beginning of a new Cold War. The two governments have sought to remove this notion, at least publicly, from Chinese officials, highlighting in particular the persistence of closely related bilateral economic interests despite the trade war.
A few days after Pence's speech, FBI director Christopher Wray doubled the vice president's remarks, saying China posed a greater danger to the United States than Russia.
The sudden reversal of relations with Washington was a shock for Beijing, who thought he had the Trump number and was leading a long campaign to calm and flatter the American leader.
"(But) the growing opinion in China is that the Trump government is trying to contain China and thwart its goal of national rejuvenation," said Bonnie Glaser, director of CSIS China Power Project in Washington.
"Great mess under the sky"
Reactions to this new reality could not be different in Washington and Beijing.
In the United States, where politics is now very partisan, China has become an unlikely lightning rod that has united Republicans and Democrats – an incredible feat in Washington.
Across the political spectrum, government officials, academic experts and business leaders increasingly agree on the urgent need to upset US-China relations, which they say have been unbalanced for too long. to the benefit of China – a point frequently emphasized by Trump.
"They have lived too well for too long and frankly, I guess they think the Americans are idiots." Americans are not idiots, "Trump told the TV show" Fox and Friends "in an interview Thursday.
According to Schell, an expert from the society of Asia, America is at an extremely critical turning point: "we'll look back and we'll be able to pull out of the edge or we'll go straight into a shock of civilizations ".
In the United States, many Chinese observers have applauded Pence's recent speech, describing it as overdue. Ironically, the only exception that many hold back seems to be the most serious allegation made by the administration: allegations that Chinese efforts to interfere in the upcoming US mid-term elections.
According to analysts, the White House's decision to describe long-standing Chinese practices, such as the purchase of infomercials in American newspapers, because a tactic of electoral interference would only weaken the US argument about the threats posed by Beijing.
Nevertheless, the unusual bipartisan consensus on China means that even Trump's skeptics – both within the administration and externally – attribute to the president the merit of having totally unbalanced the leadership. Beijing with its unpredictable and unconventional approach to foreign policy.
"The Trump administration is a bit like President Mao (who once said) to create" a big mess under the sky "… He's not afraid to demolish it or risk it. demolish and it's something that no president has previously wanted to do, "Schell said.
Beijing softened?
A senior US official recently told CNN Trump that the waves of tariffs on imports from China had led the Chinese government – known for its careful planning – to scramble for answers, without it being too late. There do not seem to be any winning countermeasures.
The official echoed Trump's public assessment that the US strategy was working and that the Chinese would collapse under growing economic pressure.
Beijing is showing signs of softening its attitude, following the initial uncompromising rhetoric of government officials and state media. The Chinese ambassador to Washington recently told an American interviewer that his country was ready to make concessions if the United States showed "sincerity".
Indeed, "sincerity" has become a codeword for the Chinese establishment when it does not understand Trump's intentions. Chinese officials have often said the following about the US president: "What does he really want?"
For many of them, Trump has turned out to be almost the opposite of the transactional leader easily manageable and politically naive than they had imagined.
In private, some Chinese officials, who argue that bilateral relations have been "mutually beneficial," expressed dismay at Xi's "extravagant" remarks and his aggressive stance on issues such as trade and the China Sea. southern US strong reactions against China.
Glaser, the Washington-based analyst, said Beijing officials were under increasing pressure, dissatisfied with how the economy and relations with the United States had been managed.
"Anything that threatens the stability of Xi and the Chinese government is China's first goal," she said.
Publicly, Chinese officials are still discussing trade, saying Beijing would not yield to Trump's pressure.
But some Chinese officials share the worries of observers that future clashes between China and the United States, if no strong-willed rulers would compromise, would only cause nationalistic fervor in the United States. extremists of the Chinese government, military and general public.
Winter is coming down on both the United States and China, the concern is that the cold weather of US-China relations could freeze.
