The Chinese government has been forced to counter America’s single-minded obsession with sidelining the Middle Kingdom once again and tell the US to “abandon its Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, stop unprovoked accusations and attacks against China and treat relations with China in a constructive manner.” This time Beijing’s position came out of the country’s embassy in Japan, which is where US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for deeper cooperation between Australia, India and Japan to counter China’s growing regional influence. Indeed the Trump administration has been obsessed with containing China one way or the other right from the get go. Washington even resorted to what is known in the world of diplomacy as dirty tricks including unnecessary sanctions and a completely unfair trade war. And it says something that so late in the electoral cycle, just days from the presidential election, the White House has jetted the secretary of state to Tokyo to whip up an anti-China coalition. Yet as deeply resentful as the Trump setup is towards China the policy to check China’s growth and influence, the so-called Pivot to Asia, actually has its roots in the days of the Obama administration, which goes to show that both the Democratic and Republican establishments have similar feelings about protecting America’s hegemony. It is nothing short of a spectacle really that a fading superpower, one which has a part in almost all destabilising conflicts all over the world and the blood of millions upon millions on its hands, is bending over backwards to subvert a rising power that has pulled hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and is busy erecting a trade corridor between continents on the lines of the ancient, fabled Silk Route. And it’s a shame that the world cannot expect much better policy even if the Republicans are voted out of the White House in a few days. The Chinese, for their part, are doing the right thing by replying to all accusations calmly and calling on the Americans to back off before they cause any more damage. It is never a good sign for the rest of the rest of the world when the two biggest economies lock horns; and that too just because one cannot stand the other. Hopefully the Americans will realise their mistake and mend their ways. The coronavirus has already wrecked the global economy. It can do without any more unforced disasters. * 4Shares