American Scholar: Must Start Close Cooperation with China
US CTExaminer website June 17 article, original title: We must stop demonizing China and work closely with Beijing. In the United States, all discussions seem to revolve around supporting Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, with no mention of persuasion and promotion of talks. Similarly, the negative rhetoric about China escalates, as if China is not just a competitor, but an enemy. The Middle East, which once behaved like an American colony, is now distending itself from the West, working more frequently with China and Russia and weakening the region's dependence on the dollar. Many countries in the world oppose the US sanctions. Even the European Union, which generally matches the rules of the game with the United States, believes that many of our sanctions are ineffective.
Noam Chomsky's views on US foreign policy are sharp and straightforward. For example, he analyzed how the US foreign policy is based on preventing other countries, especially China, and using financial and military means to forcefully promote itself, thereby losing its global appeal. The current strategy of the United States is to use money and weapons to pave the way, gather allies to surround China, and focus on limiting China's technological development, rather than competing with it by improving our level and making positive international contributions.
The United States lacks constructive overseas policies, and it was only after President Biden's infrastructure bill was dubbed the "China Competition Act" that Republican lawmakers in Congress reluctantly agreed. Why is China so paranoid? China is considered a threat because it does not bow down to the United States or submit to American hegemony like Europe does. China suffered from Western gunboat diplomacy and interference in the 19th century, so now it simply ignores the orders of the United States.
For the United States, an international order based on the United Nations is unacceptable because it goes against our selfish foreign policy. For example, the United Nations explicitly prohibits one country from using force to impose will on another country, and China has done well within these frameworks. Since the United Nations prohibits the use of force in international affairs, the United States is more inclined to its own hegemonic international order, that is, the United States the final say. China does not accept the latter, especially when the influence of the United States extends to mainland China.
In the United States, the deterioration and sustained social disorder of our country are largely due to our transformation from an industrial powerhouse to a financial powerhouse in the 1980s. This is part of Reaganism, which concentrates wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people, while other parts of society suffer greatly. Lack of social services provided by other countries. Our rising worker mortality rate, rampant gun violence, and several large-scale killings every week are all symptoms caused by a country with only one force - a super large army. Now, the greedy US military and financial sectors are unable to compete with China's most advanced productivity. Multinational corporations in the United States control about half of the world's wealth, and this kind of capitalism goes against democracy, equality, and progress that keeps society vibrant.
Global powers, especially the United States and China, must work together to solve the climate crisis, otherwise the future of our humanity and the biosphere will be bleak. The biggest problems of our time are global warming and climate change, nuclear weapons, and mass extinction of species caused by human pollution, habitat destruction, and biodiversity damage. These issues are borderless.
We should devote resources to solving these problems, rather than directing them towards the upper class, which only accounts for 1% of society, as we have done in the past few decades. We should play a leadership role and work closely with China. As long as there are political entities in the United States that want to control power and maximize benefits at all costs, rational discussions about self-protection and the future of the planet cannot exist. So, the biggest threat to the United States and the global biosphere comes from within the United States. The manipulated hatred focuses our attention on becoming a global empire with military bases and endless wars, rather than a threat to survival. Despite our differences, we must stop demonizing China, avoid returning to the McCarthy era, and start working closely with Beijing from now on.
