By Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan
After very serious and tense relations for quite some time, the “First Crisis Communications Working Group” between the U.S. Department of Defense and the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China, that took place on 28-29 October 2020 by video Conference, to discuss concepts of crisis communications, crisis prevention, and crisis management, is an optimistic phenomenon.
As long as China was backward and poor, there was no tension with the US, but the soon after China picked up and its economy boomed, the US jealousy and hostility appeared. Due to China’s rapid development, its economy surpassed many developed economies like Japan and Germany, and became the second largest economy. There were estimations that China will surpass the American Economy by 2025 approximately. However, due to Pandemic, the whole scenario changed completely. In the beginning, China was the first victim, and the US was celebrating the disaster of Chinese Economy, even, Secretary of Commerce Mr. Ross, expressed the outbreak of Corona virus in China as a blessing for America and termed it as an opportunity for America to create more job, and enhanced economic activities, and improve its economy. Contrarily, China, with its appropriate measures, over-came Pandemic, but the US became the worst hit nation with the highest number of Corona-infection cases and in term of death toll as well.
A recent, reports released from IMF, says the China has surpassed the US economy. However, in some respect, China already surpassed the US.
Anyhow, China and the US are major contributor to global economy and stability. Any confrontation between them is dangerous for global economy, and global peace. During the last few months, the growing tension between them was alarming and has imposed a threat to global security. With this background, the communication between them is welcomed and seems vital averting any mishap.
There were chances of incidental ignition or due to technical fault, any wrong signal may lead to a big disaster. Such communication between the defense authorities are crucial to safeguard peace globally.
The meeting between the defense officials of the US and China, provided an chance to build mutual understanding between the U.S. military and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on principles to prevent and manage crisis and reduce risk to use of forces. The two sides agreed on the importance of establishing mechanisms for timely communication during a crisis, as well as the need to maintain regular communication channels to prevent crisis and conduct post-crisis assessment. It seems the US has realized the importance of communication and understood the blame game, bashing, and threatening will not serve any purpose. It is communication, cooperation and understanding, which is need of the time to make the whole world a safe palace to live happily.
The U.S. delegation, as host, included representatives from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and the United States Indo-Pacific Command. The Chinese delegation included representatives of the Central Military Commission’s (CMC) Office for International Military Cooperation, the CMC Joint Staff Department, and the PLA Southern Theater Command. This was a high-level meeting and opened avenues of further communication and the next meeting might raise the level to further higher levels too.
It is well understood, that wars and conflicts have harmed the humanity in past, and may never serve humanity. We must learn lessons from history, and should not repeat the same mistakes any more. China is most populous country in the world, the rapid developments of China is a unique in its nature, the only country having eliminated poverty, and won its war against Corona virus, there are many things we may learn from China. Of course, the American achievement are also need to utilize to serve humanity around the globe.
Trust, communication may lead toward Global Peace, Stability, and Prosperity.
Author: Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan, Sinologist (ex-Diplomat), Editor, Analyst, Non-Resident Fellow of CCG (Center for China and Globalization), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy or views of World Geostrategic Insights).