The US is going about its competition with China all wrong
- As long as the US misreads the strategic landscape and assumes ideological superiority, policy recommendations made on this basis will miss the mark
- Reductionist thinking that is a relic of the post-World War II era will only create a dangerous environment for American interests and the world
Putting aside the more philosophical question of whether America should try to “win” the competition with China, presupposing that the competition can result in a definitive victory is unsophisticated and archaic. The premise is based on a misreading of the strategic landscape and an overreliance on assuming ideological superiority, ensuring that any policy recommendations based on this notion continue to miss the mark.
Political leaders’ beliefs in the effectiveness of their strategy to “win” the competition with China stem from a common but flawed assumption: that if the US can create the right economic and social environment, Chinese citizens will demand democracy from their leaders.
This erroneous presumption, that the American system is both universally desirable and achievable through external influence, overestimates the US ability to catalyse democratic transformations.
Additionally, the Chinese people do not think as a monolith. Some citizens indeed yearn for a society more akin to that of the US, advocating for greater freedoms in areas such as internet access or free speech. Conversely, others view the trade-offs between personal freedoms and the economic stability provided by the government as acceptable, or even desirable.
Unexamined, inconsistent assertions that everybody in China is waiting for the US to grant them the gift of democracy serve little purpose except to provide fodder for Chinese propaganda and diminish the reputation of the US on the international stage.
The policy recommendations that arise from insistence on the intrinsic ideological and practical supremacy of the US are thus inherently flawed.
There are valid critiques that the US can and should make of China and the Chinese system. But resorting to apocalyptic theories about the US becoming a “Xinjiang-lite” society – as Gallagher did in an interview last year – makes the US seem paranoid and delusional. Furthermore, suggesting that winning the competition with China would mean regime change is to invite war.
Those who assume, on either side of the Pacific, that there can be a “winner” in the competition between the US and China are mired in overconfidence and lack a practical view of the geopolitical landscape.
Oversimplification of the US-China competition into a game that can be won or lost highlights a pattern of reductionist, binary thinking that is a relic of the post-World War II era. This not only hinders the development of a more realistic and effective foreign policy but creates a dangerous environment for both American interests and the world.
Mallie Prytherch is a researcher at the Centre on Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong