American rivalry with China

A really great article with regards to China is in today’s New York Times titled “A Look Back at Our Coming War With China” by Carlos Lozada.[1] The opinion piece focuses on US writers of both policy prescriptions as well as thriller fiction books ala Tom Clancy. But here is my two cents.

Is China a rival? Sure. Economically, politically and increasingly militarily. Does China need to be an enemy? Absolutely not. But far too many in both the right and the left seem to be competing to be the biggest China-hawks!

My once balanced Twitter feed is now (thanks to Elon Musk) home to a flood of rightwing, Republican GOP commentary. Much of it China bashing and red-baiting with incessant arguments about money going to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This is occuring on both the national level and state level where GOP attack dogs are ferociously using the CCP argument to stop a couple Chinese originated businesses from opening high-tech operations in Michigan. It’s very odd change on the part of these Republicans who cheered former Republican Governor Snyder’s junkets to China in 2012 to “bring back businesses” and jobs here.

We also see the China-bashing from the Democrats, with sanctions and heated rhetoric by the Biden administration.

The primary problem is that the USA’s own narcissistic view of our so-called exceptionalism blinds us as a society (at least politically) from understanding where China was to where it wants to go for its own reasons. But China has a longer history than the USA and it too sees itself as exceptional. When I lived in Shenzhen for ten weeks for work, the people I met were proud of their country, proud of its advancement economically and militarily. Did some feel a bit of regret with regards to a lesser level of democracy or free speech than we expect here? Sure. But that didn’t overshadow the pride in other aspects of China’s rise. The Chinese people want what we want- a strong vibrant nation in which they can hold pride, a strong prosperous economy and better opportunities for their children.

A few years after living in that new, mostly gleaming metropolis of 17 million people, I ran into a Chinese man and his family in North Muskegon Michigan. They were visiting the replica colonial blockhouse fort along Lake Michigan. I mentioned having been to Shenzhen. He said he was from elsewhere in China but recalled visiting Shenzhen in 1985 by train and there was literally no train station or pedestrian platform. He had to jump down off the train steps on to gravel. He came back five years later and the city had exploded into being. There is a book about this growth titled “The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China’s Instant City” by Juan Du which I have read and own.[2]

I remember in the 1960s the phrase “clean your plate, there are starving children in China.” And indeed there were. The USA currently has 26% of the population living in poverty , whereas China has 23.9%. That progress is simply amazing! I also think a large part of it can be attributed to Deng Xiaoping, who invented the so-called “Capitalism with a Chinese Face” concept. Xi is building on that economic foundation while putting more power into his own hands.

The result is a long term view by China whereas much of American society, economic and political is often short-view. What the USA needs is a long view of our relationship with China. This long view needs to be informed by FACTS and non-partisan or bipartisan concensus on how to address the issues between the two nations. This cannot effectively be done if both sides of our political aisles are working overtime to outdo the other side in expressing their anti-Chinese animosity. Stridency and emotional approaches won’t be effective.

[1]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/18/opinion/china-usa-relations-books-war.html

[2]
https://www.amazon.com/Shenzhen-Experiment-Story-Chinas-Instant/dp/0674975286