Fear Is Not the Key

China-u.s. ties need more positive energy to overcome rising tensions

TThe author is an assistant researcher at the Institute of American Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations here has been more anti-china rhetoric from the Trump administration of late with President Donald Trump attacking Chinese trade and economic practices in his speech to the UN General Assembly on September 25 and Vice President Michael Pence delivering an all-out assault in his speech at Hudson Institute on October 4. All of this made U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s China visit on October 8 critical.

The bilateral relationship has been facing turbulence since the White House released the National Security Strategy (NSS) in December 2017 and the Department of Defense came up with the National Defense Strategy this January, labeling China a “revisionist power” and “strategic competitor,” thus setting the tone for the Trump administration’s China policy.

Negative narrative

Washington seems to be using a negative narrative to describe the bilateral relationship, regarding the United States’ China strategy in the past 40 years, namely changing China by engagement, as having failed, based on the three major misperceptions of China. The United States believes China is dismissing U.S. power, discrediting U.S. democracy and dismantling the U.s.-led international order.

Although the NSS report states that competition will not necessarily lead to confrontation, and Pence too stressed it in his speech, the American anxiety and eagerness to compete with China are bound to create more misunderstanding and mistrust between the two countries.

The United States has several misperceptions about competition. Firstly, it thinks the competition with China will be limited to the economic field. Secondly, it is not targeting China alone, but is competing with other countries as well, including its allies. Finally, by competing with China, Trump is correcting his predecessor’s wrong policies.

However, if we look at U. S. trade policies toward China, they have already crossed the stage of addressing trade deficits or economic problems. Washington has groundless accusations about China’s lack of intellectual property protection and market openness and technology transfer needs, demanding major concessions in those areas as a precondition for holding trade talks with China.

In other words, the trade conflict triggered by the United States is not for turning trade numbers, but to change China’s pace of reform and opening up, or alter China’s economic development mode. It means the United States is using its economic strength to interfere in China’s domestic policies.

Moreover, the United States is not really competing with its allies but is coercing them to economically isolate China if that becomes necessary in the future. The new United Sates-mexico-canada Agreement, the renegotiation that could replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, is a good example. It states that if one partner enters into a free trade agreement with a “non-market economy,” the others are entitled to withdraw from the deal with six months’ notice. The language is widely seen as referring to China since the United States has long refused to recognize China as a market economy.

It is also expected that the United States will continue to seek allies to form a common front against China by adding this clause in the possible free trade agreements with Japan and the European Union. This kind of so-called competition will lead to economic confrontation between the United States and China.

The trade conflict has already spilled over to other areas in China-u.s. relations. On the security front, the United States has been constantly undermining China’s interests and interfering in China’s domestic politics. The Taiwan Travel Act, signed by Trump in March, promotes “high-level diplomatic exchanges” between the United States and China’s Taiwan Province; and on September 24, the United States announced new arms sales to Taiwan valued at $330 million.

Soon after the arms sale announcement, a U. S. guided- missile destroyer patrolled the South China Sea, once again

The Trump administration is trying to “domesticalize” the China-u.s. relationship by demonizing China’s role in U.S. domestic politics