Deteriorating US-China relations threaten an Asian arms race. It’s time for a reboot

Ties between Beijing and Washington have been on a downward spiral since the end of the Clinton administration two decades ago

Today, a US foreign policy that requires the choosing of sides has little future. This should be obvious when Asian countries like the Philippines feel the need to buy missiles

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Tom Plate

Tom Plate is a university professor and a veteran columnist focused on Asia and America.

Published: 1:30am, 11 Jan 2022Updated: 2:06am, 11 Jan 2022

I look back in anger. There’s no other way emotionally to cope with the sense that, ever since the exit of the Clinton administration two decades ago, relations with China have gone from “the good and the bad” to mostly bad.

It’s not that the Clinton crowd had some magic touch – far from it. But, in spite of not having a fully thought-out overall policy towards a re-emerging China, they muddled through well enough and kept the bilateral diplomatic ball bouncing.

They emphasised the positive with China wherever credible, tried to keep their hawkish fits under control, and stuck with promoting trade as the totem of the United States’ capitalist personality. It was practical policy, literally businesslike: granular rather than inspirational, but real in not going beyond what would get you by, day to day.

The “accidental” bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 became a sore point in relations but came short of a breaking point. A year later, the US Congress passed trade legislation to ease Beijing’s membership into the World Trade Organization. It was far from heavenly, but appropriately down-to-earth.