‘America First’ should not leave China in charge
WHEN President Trump’s critics complain about “isolationism” or “abdication of America’s global leadership,” it is usually best to roll one’s eyes. They gripe about Trump withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, they worry he won’t maintain the United States’ role as global policeman, and they fret about Trump perhaps giving offense to German Chancellor Angela Merkel by asking her to spend more on defense.
Often, these complaints are about Trump, under the banner of “America First,” well, putting America first in his foreign policy, as he promised in his election campaign. But that turns out to be his job. U.S. foreign policy ought to be directed at advancing American interests, and the nation’s manpower and money ought to be spent overseas only on those matters that benefit us.
In that context, there are legitimate and serious reasons to worry about American disengagement in some parts of the world. Most of the reasons boil down to the rise of China.
China, with India and Japan, announced this week that it is pursuing the formation of an Asian trading bloc, the largest in the world. Over time, the alliance could pull Japan and India, two of America’s greatest allies in the East, into China’s orbit. It’s hard not to see this in light of the collapse of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Trump pulled the U.S. out of TPP last year. The trade deal had its virtues and its flaws, but the best argument for it was to draw Asian nations closer to us, and thereby weaken the power of China’s entreaties.
Trump has offered nothing in place of TPP, and that’s a problem. America can spread its values of economic and political freedom most easily through trade. Instead it is allowing China to spread its realpolitik.
Trump’s tariffs are further driving away our trading partners such as South Korea. Pushing away Asian nations nudges them toward China. And if Trump looks at the big picture, he’ll realize why that’s a bad thing.
Chinese investments dot the developing world. Although the takeover of a port in Sri Lanka and the building of a railway connecting east African nations may seem far away from American concerns, lack of interest in these regions has left a vacuum that China has been all too happy to fill.
This matters because China’s government-owned businesses build, control and often own key ports or roads, and water or electrical systems that create a path for Chinese dominance of global power structures. Economically, China is opening new markets, and controlling them through state-owned companies.
As China gains influence in the absence of U.S. engagement, nations that once looked to this country as a model of success are looking instead toward China and stateled development.
When countries depend on China for trade and infrastructure, China can extract concessions, and sometimes it uses these concessions for military gain. It should make America uneasy if Chinese-built ports in Africa, Asia and even the Western Hemisphere become tools of the Chinese government.
America should engage the rest of the world not primarily because it benefits the rest of the world, but because it benefits the U.S. to have smaller nations see us as the shining city on the hill. For Americans, a world that follows China’s light would be a dim world indeed.