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Strategic war questions4/20/2023 Right after the meeting in Anchorage, the United States, the EU, the United Kingdom, and Canada imposed coordinated sanctions on Chinese officials and entities for the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. US President Joe Biden’s approach of dealing with China from a position of strength by building alliances seems to be bearing fruit. The contention will instead be protracted, with potential for escalation, overshadowing economic competition and possible cooperation in areas of common interest such as climate change. As such, it will be difficult to resolve through transactional deals on tariffs or market access, for example. Seen in this way, the US-China strategic competition clearly assumes an ideological dimension. One could say that China has helped make the world safe for autocracies. Meanwhile, democracy and freedom have been on a sustained decline around the world over the past fifteen years. Compared with the largely theoretical promises of communism, China’s real-life achievements with its development model appeal to many developing countries. It is, in other words, a model of authoritarian state-led capitalism as opposed to one of open-market democracy. China emphasized that it will defend its core interests to the utmost.īesides promoting sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs as the foundation of international relations-a principle popular among developing countries-China has offered a proven governance and development model: combining political control reinforced by digital authoritarianism with market mechanisms encouraging foreign direct investment and exports. Furthermore, Chinese diplomats and spokespeople painted the United States as condescending in lecturing other countries on how to behave while not being able to put its own house in order. Furthermore, the United States made a change in Chinese behavior a precondition to an improvement in the relationship, stressing that these actions are not merely a matter of China’s internal affairs (as Beijing often claims) but rather of grave concern to the international community.Ĭhina attacked the United States for interfering in China’s internal affairs, accusing Washington of threatening its security and development interests and not respecting its sovereignty. Specifically, the United States criticized China for its actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan aggression in the East and South China seas and cyberattacks against the United States as well as economic coercion against US allies. Those basic differences were publicly displayed at the Anchorage meeting. The Biden administration has elevated the concept of rivalry over governance models, which was first formulated by the European Union (EU) to define one component of its relationship with China, as a fundamental difference over core values, from respecting human and democratic rights to abiding by the rules-based international order. While not a struggle between capitalism and communism, the current rivalry over governance models is no less ideological in nature or important to the world. Nonetheless, an analysis of Christensen’s three classic Cold War elements can help us better understand the contours of the emerging US-China rivalry. With a literal comparison of today’s situation with the previous Cold War, one risks underestimating the complexity and seriousness of China’s challenges. It is critical to strive for a balanced assessment of the rising competition, avoiding both underestimating the challenges posed by China and exaggerating its strengths-as well as those of the West. However, the question of using or not using the label “cold war” is less important than the reasoning behind the choice. Consequently, writes Christensen, “the voices calling for a cold war containment strategy toward China misunderstand the nature of China’s challenges and therefore prescribe responses that will only weaken the United States.” the global economy has become so integrated that it cannot be separated into blocs, and thus a containment strategy will not work. the United States and China are not leading alliances that could foster proxy wars and precipitate nuclear crises 3. the United States and China are not engaged in an ideological struggle to win the hearts and minds of third countries 2. ApIs the US-China strategic competition a cold war?Įver since the acrimonious meeting between senior US and Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18, there has been a renewed debate on whether the heightened tension between the two countries should be called a new cold war.Ĭolumbia University professor Thomas Christensen argues in Foreign Affairs that the current US-China strategic competition cannot be labeled a cold war as it lacks three essential and interrelated elements that defined the US-Soviet Union conflict: 1.
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