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Opinion | Waning US must overcome fear of China’s inevitable rise to the top
- The US must ultimately grasp the inconvenient reality that China will become the world’s largest economy sooner rather than later
- With most US allies hedging their bets, the ‘existential threat’ approach looks like theatrics behind a last-ditch attempt to shore up Pax Americana
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While denying any attempt to contain China, recent moves by the Biden administration and the stance taken by the Group of 7 seem to have upped the ante by targeting China’s human rights transgressions and playing the Taiwan card.
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This accompanies a more robust, if calibrated, approach towards China in what are considered the West’s “strategic assets”, including advanced technology. Efforts also continue apace in Nato members’ naval deployments in the South China Sea.
All these follow the 280-page bipartisan Strategic Competition Act of 2021 in the US Senate to compete, confront or deter China on all dimensions of power as appropriate.
The United States, along with its allies, is fixated on China as an existential threat that must be countered across the board if the US-led liberal world order is to be preserved. US President Joe Biden has vowed not to let China become “the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world and the most powerful country in the world”.
As great power rivalry keeps heating up, several myths must be debunked if US-China relations are not to spin out of control.
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First, China’s rise with its perceived problematic practices could be a threat to the Western-dominated world order with its “universal values”. However, where is the evidence that it has become an existential threat? Michael Swaine, East Asia director of the Washington-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says concerns over China’s rise are overblown.
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