Trump's Cold War China Policy is Isolating the U.S., Not China
MEDEA BENJAMIN AND NICHOLAS J.S. DAVIES
08/05/2020
20SHARES
( Codepink) -
Tensions between the United States and China are rising as the U.S. election
nears, with tit-for-tat consulate closures, new U.S. sanctions and no less
than three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups prowling the seas around
China. But it is the United States that has initiated each new escalation in
U.S.-China relations. China's responses have been careful and proportionate,
with Chinese officials such as Foreign Minister Wang Yi publicly asking the
U.S. to step back from its brinkmanship to find common ground for diplomacy.
Most of the U.S. complaints about China are long-standing, from the
treatment of the Uighur minority and disputes over islands and maritime
borders in the South China Sea to accusations of unfair trade practices and
support for protests in Hong Kong. But the answer to the "Why now?" question
seems obvious: the approaching U.S. election.
Danny Russel, who was Obama's top East Asia expert in the National Security
Council and then at the State Department, told the BBC that the new tensions
with China are partly an effort to divert attention from Trump's bungled
response to the Covid-19 pandemic and his tanking poll numbers, and that
this "has a wag the dog feel to it."
Meanwhile, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden has been going
toe-to-toe with Trump and Secretary Pompeo in a potentially dangerous "tough
on China" contest, which could prove difficult for the winner to walk back
after the election.
Elections aside, there are two underlying forces at play in the current
escalation of tensions, one economic and the other military. China's
economic miracle has lifted hundreds of millions of its people out of
poverty, and, until recently, Western corporations were glad to make the
most of its huge pool of cheap labor, weak workplace and environmental
protections, and growing consumer market. Western leaders welcomed China
into their club of wealthy, powerful countries with little fuss about human
and civil rights or China's domestic politics.
So what has changed? U.S.high-tech companies like Apple, which were once
only too glad to outsource American jobs and train Chinese contractors and
engineers to manufacture their products, are finally confronting the reality
that they have not just outsourced jobs, but also skills and technology.
Chinese companies and highly skilled workers are now leading some of the
world's latest technological advances.
The global rollout of 5G cellular technology has become a flashpoint, not
because the increase and higher frequency of EMF radiation it involves may
be dangerous to human health, which is a real concern, but because Chinese
firms like Huawei and ZTE have developed and patented much of the critical
infrastructure involved, leaving Silicon Valley in the unfamiliar position
of having to play catch-up.
Also, if the U.S.'s 5G infrastructure is built by Huawei and ZTE instead of
AT&T and Verizon, the U.S. government will no longer be able to require
"back doors" that the NSA can use to spy on us all, so it is instead stoking
fears that China could insert its own back doors in Chinese equipment to spy
on us instead. Left out of the discussion is the real solution: repeal the
Patriot Act and make sure that all the technology we use in our daily lives
is secure from the prying eyes of both the U.S. and foreign governments.
China is investing in infrastructure all over the world. As of March 2020, a
staggering 138 countries have joined China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),
a massive plan to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime
networks. China's international influence will only be enhanced by its
success, and the U.S.'s failure, in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the military front, the Obama and Trump administrations have both tried
to "pivot to Asia" to confront China, even as the U.S. military remains
bogged down in the Middle East. With a war-weary public demanding an end to
the endless wars that have served to justify record military spending for
nearly 20 years, the U.S. military-industrial complex has to find more
substantial enemies to justify its continued existence and budget-busting
costs. Lockheed Martin is not ready to switch from building billion-dollar
warplanes on cost-plus contracts to making wind turbines and solar panels.
The only targets the U.S. can find to justify a $740-billion military budget
and 800 overseas military bases are its familiar old Cold War enemies:
Russia and China. They both expanded their modest military budgets after
2011, when the U.S. and its allies hi-jacked the Arab Spring to launch
covert and proxy wars in Libya, where China had substantial oil interests,
and Syria, a long-term Russian ally. But their increases in military
spending were only relative. In 2019, China's military budget was only $261
billion compared to the U.S.'s $732 billion, according to SIPRI. The U.S.
still spends more on its military than the ten next largest military powers
combined, including Russia and China.
Russian and Chinese military forces are almost entirely defensive, with an
emphasis on advanced and effective anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile
systems. Neither Russia nor China has invested in carrier strike groups to
sail the seven seas or U.S.-style expeditionary forces to attack or invade
countries on the other side of the planet. But they do have the forces and
weapons they need to defend themselves and their people from any U.S. attack
and both are nuclear powers, making a major war against either of them a
more serious prospect than the U.S. military has faced anywhere since the
Second World War.
China and Russia are both deadly serious about defending themselves, but we
should not misinterpret that as enthusiasm for a new arms race or a sign of
aggressive intentions on their part. It is U.S. imperialism and militarism
that are driving the escalating tensions. The sad truth is that 30 years
after the supposed end of the Cold War, the U.S. military-industrial complex
has failed to reimagine itself in anything but Cold War terms, and its "New"
Cold War is just a revival of the old Cold War that it spent the last three
decades telling us it already won.
"China Is Not an Enemy"
The U.S. and China do not have to be enemies. Just a year ago, a hundred
U.S. business, political and military leaders signed a public letter to
President Trump in the Washington Post entitled "China Is Not an Enemy."
They wrote that China is not "an economic enemy or an existential national
security threat," and U.S opposition "will not prevent the continued
expansion of the Chinese economy, a greater global market share for Chinese
companies and an increase in China's role in world affairs."
They concluded that, "U.S. efforts to treat China as an enemy and decouple
it from the global economy will damage the United States' international role
and reputation and undermine the economic interests of all nations," and
that the U.S. "could end up isolating itself rather than Beijing."
That is precisely what is happening. Governments all over the world are
collaborating with China to stop the spread of coronavirus and share the
solutions with all who need them. The U.S. must stop pursuing its
counterproductive effort to undermine China, and instead work with all our
neighbors on this small planet. Only by cooperating with other nations and
international organizations can we stop the pandemic-and address the
coronavirus-sparked economic meltdown gripping the world economy and the
many challenges we must all face together if we are to survive and thrive in
the 21st century.