Former top United States (US) diplomat Nicholas Burns on Friday dismissed suggestions China is winning the battle against the coronavirus, saying the country has a “fearful leadership” intent on preserving its power and incapable of accommodating the Chinese people’s desire for freedom. Democracies such as India and the US are waging a “battle of ideas with China” and should work together to “make it observe the rule of law”, he said during a video conversation with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The conversation was part of a series between Gandhi and global and Indian thought leaders to discuss the Covid-19 crisis and its consequences. As under secretary of state for political affairs during 2005-08 and the state department’s third-ranking official, Burns led negotiations on the India-US civil nuclear agreement. His remarks come in the backdrop of a weeks-long border stand-off between India and China and intensified rivalry between the US and China.

Responding to Gandhi’s question on why there has been almost no global cooperation on the Covid-19 crisis, Burns said: “It is a terrible disappointment to me. I’m sure it is to you…this crisis was made for the G20. It was made for Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump to be working together, all of our countries, for the common global good.”

This hadn’t happened, he said, “because Donald Trump doesn’t really believe in international cooperation. He’s a unilateralist…And Xi Jinping chose to compete with Trump.” He added that the US and China were at the “heart of the problem” and hoped they will better work together more effectively in any future crisis.

Burns said: “I think a lot of people right now are saying…China’s winning the battle of the Coronavirus, that it’s gaining hearts and minds. I actually don’t see that.“

He added that China certainly had “extraordinary power”, which was ”probably not equal to the US militarily, economically, politically yet”. “But it’s gaining, no question about it. What China lacks is the sophistication and openness of a democratic country like India or the US.”

Describing China as an “authoritarian country” without the “self-corrective part” of the national DNA seen in India and the US, Burns said the leadership in Beijing is “fearful”. He added, “Fearful men trying to preserve their own power, increasing the grip that they have on their own citizens. Look at what’s happening in Xinjiang…and in Hong Kong.”

He said he worried that the “Chinese system is not going to be flexible enough to accommodate the desires of the Chinese people for human freedom and liberty”.

The governments of India and the US should together promote democracy, freedom and rule of law around the world, said Burns, who served in the US government for 27 years. “I think it is a powerful idea that Indians and Americans can bring together to the rest of the world. Again…we are not looking for a conflict with China, but we are waging, in a way, a battle of ideas with China,” he said.

Gandhi said the partnership between India and the US worked because both were tolerant nations but that DNA of tolerance has now disappeared. He also said the India-US relationship used to be a partnership but now seems to have become “very transactional and episodic”.

“I think why our partnership works is because we are tolerant systems. You mentioned that you are an immigrant nation. We are a very tolerant nation. Our DNA is supposed to be tolerant. We are supposed to accept new ideas,” the Congress leader said while responding to Burns, who insisted India and the US share many traits.

“We are supposed to be open but the surprising thing is…that open DNA is sort of disappearing…I say this with sadness that I don’t see that level of tolerance that I used to see. I don’t see it in the Us and I don’t see it in India,” Gandhi said.

The discussion also focused on the Black Lives Matter protests in the US triggered by the death of George Floyd, which Burns described as “horrible”. He added, “And millions of Americans are protesting for our rights the way you have in India. And India and the US share many traits as we both have liberated ourselves from the British in different [eras]….The US is in a deep political and existential crisis that has gripped us all.”

Gandhi criticised divisions in both countries, saying they weaken nations. “When you divide African Americans, Mexicans and other people in the US, so you divide Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs in India, you’re weakening the structure of the country. But then the same people who weaken the structure of the country say they are the nationalists,” he said.

Burns described Indian Americans as the “secret weapon” in the bilateral relationship and said the two sides should keep their doors open to each other and lower restrictions on the movement of people. Barriers should be kept low for schemes such as the H-1B visa programme as India can supply the engineers needed by the US, he said.