America against America is most sought after book in China
Book that forecast US's decline due to domestic conflicts 30 years ago now sells for $2,500
Jan. 13: After chaos engulfed the US Capitol last week, some Chinese intellectuals found themselves searching for copies of an out-of-print book to make sense of events. "America Against America" forecast the US's decline due to domestic conflicts more than 30 years ago.
Among the things driving demand was the author: Wang Huning, the Communist Party's No. 5 leader and top political theorist to three Chinese presidents. Some copies have surged to more than 16,600 yuan ($2,500) on Kungfuzi, an online marketplace for antiques. That's more than 3,000 times its original asking price in 1991, when Japan was more widely seen as America's big economic rival.
"The interest in the book is the result of a renewed desire to understand a US that is in the midst of a civil cold war," said Wang Wen, executive dean of Renmin University's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies. "China's doubts about the US will certainly increase in light of recent events."
The Capitol Hill turmoil is being read in Beijing as the most powerful sign yet that societal fissures in the US are behind increasingly erratic foreign policy shifts. That's feeding Chinese apprehension about reaching agreements on trade or other politically charged disputes with president-elect Joe Biden.
"The instability of a negotiation partner means that its public credibility is on the decline and the risk of breaking contracts or promises is greater," Wang Wen said on Tuesday.
Such skepticism illustrates how Washington's political strife is compounding Biden's challenge of stabilising US relationships around the world after four years of shocks and surprises under President Donald Trump. Among his most difficult tasks will be convincing China's Xi Jinping to make concessions that go beyond the "phase one" trade deal announced by Trump a year ago.
Not only did that agreement fail to address most of the Trump administration's biggest trade grievances, including government support for strategic industries and stronger action on state-run enterprises, but China has purchased little more than half of the $172 billion worth of US goods it agreed to buy last year under the deal. Disputes between the two countries have since spiralled into everything from microchips to Taiwan, as Trump increasingly sought to blame China for his election year difficulties.
Meanwhile, Xi appears to have moved on, buoyed by early success against the coronavirus and a resilient economy. Xi has lately emphasised "selfsufficiency" and girded for a prolonged struggle, urging local officials earlier this week to "not only dare to fight, but also be good at fighting," according to the official Xinhua News Agency. State media accuses the US of abandoning four decades of engagement in favour of containment.
As Washington was gripped by one of the most divisive presidential transitions ever, Xi finalised a long-sought investment deal with the European
Union that touches on many of the issues left out of the US pact. The agreement had been championed by German chancellor Angela Merkel, a key American ally who early in the Trump presidency declared that Europe could no longer rely on others.
"While both sides have paid a price for the trade war, the US will suffer more in the long run because it damaged its position and reputation as the central pillar of global trade and commerce," said Mei Xinyu, who is with a research group under the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing.
Wang Huning's book, which was written during an academic visit to the US in 1988, predicted that America's emphasis on "individualism, hedonism and democracy" would eventually cause rifts that sapped its competitive drive. Countries like Japan—built on "collectivism, selflessness and authoritarianism"—had the upper hand, said Wang Huning, who's now one of seven people on the politburo's supreme Standing Committee.
That thesis hasn't stood up so well over the past three decades: of the US's two main rivals of that era--Japan and the Soviet Union--one collapsed and the other saw its economy stagnate. That left the US as the world's undisputed superpower, and today it still boasts the world's most powerful military and biggest economy, powered by waves of successive innovation-driven technology booms.
But confidence is growing in China that the balance may be shifting. Besides the transition chaos, the US's struggles against the coronavirus, racial justice protests and gun violence--subjects featured prominently in China's state-run media--have fed the narrative of American decline.
—Bloomberg