The world's two most powerful nations must pause in their rivalry for primacy and join hands against the coronavirus that has already claimed over 2,000 lives. The growing wariness between the United States and China has of late become unmistakable. Last week, the State Department labelled the American operations of China's five main media organisations as foreign missions, to be treated as extensions of the Chinese Communist Party. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo early this month listed how China posed economic and national security risks at local levels. At this month's Munich Security Conference, Defence Secretary Mark Esper noted that under President Xi Jinping, China was witnessing "more internal repression, more predatory economic practices, more heavy-handedness and a more aggressive military posture". After defining China as a strategic competitor in 2017, the US seems to be shifting from scrutinising specific grievances, like intellectual property rights violations, to taking a stance against China's ideological system itself.

In response, Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi said at the Munich conference that the West needed to eschew the "subconscious belief in the superiority of its civilisation". He added that it needs to respect the choices of the Chinese people and "welcome the development of a major country in the East, one with a system different from the West". President Donald Trump has, at times, stood markedly apart from the rest of his administration while maintaining pressure on Beijing. Last week, amid reports that officials were keen to block the sales of advanced jet engines to China, for fear that they might be reverse-engineered, Mr Trump called for the sales to go ahead. The "national security excuse" was being overused, he tweeted.