According to The New York Times, at least 29 congressional candidates bashed China in television ads in October alone.
Jihadist terrorists may kill more Americans in the years to come, but they don’t threaten American primacy. China does. Decades from now, historians may well identify the entire “war on terror” as an interlude between great power competition, the kind of thing the United States could afford to focus on in those unipolar years between its rivalry with the Soviet Union and its rivalry with China.
For the moment, America’s China debate takes place in two, artificially separate, spheres. When it comes to defense, the right, more than the left, uses the Chinese threat as a justification for bigger military budgets. But when it comes to economics, the left, more than the right, insists that the U.S. challenge the way China values its currency and treats its workers. The right wants America to grow more economically integrated with China even as they grow more militarily confrontational. The left wants America to risk rupturing their economic ties with China while any national security spills over. It doesn’t make much sense. Sooner or later, China is going to wreak havoc with the foreign policy fault lines to which Americans have grown accustomed since 9/11, and indeed, since Vietnam. Let’s hope it’s sooner.
The need for China to carry a smaller stick while acts nonchalantly is getting prejudicial...
Jihadist terrorists may kill more Americans in the years to come, but they don’t threaten American primacy. China does. Decades from now, historians may well identify the entire “war on terror” as an interlude between great power competition, the kind of thing the United States could afford to focus on in those unipolar years between its rivalry with the Soviet Union and its rivalry with China.
For the moment, America’s China debate takes place in two, artificially separate, spheres. When it comes to defense, the right, more than the left, uses the Chinese threat as a justification for bigger military budgets. But when it comes to economics, the left, more than the right, insists that the U.S. challenge the way China values its currency and treats its workers. The right wants America to grow more economically integrated with China even as they grow more militarily confrontational. The left wants America to risk rupturing their economic ties with China while any national security spills over. It doesn’t make much sense. Sooner or later, China is going to wreak havoc with the foreign policy fault lines to which Americans have grown accustomed since 9/11, and indeed, since Vietnam. Let’s hope it’s sooner.
The need for China to carry a smaller stick while acts nonchalantly is getting prejudicial...
