Zhengxu Wang

Opinion | Botched Afghan retreat reveals an America struggling to contain China

Unable to better China in positive competition and with military options unfeasible, the US can only fall back on the ‘moral high ground’. But in its hasty Afghan withdrawal, to focus on China, the US risks losing even this

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Zhengxu Wang

Published: 1:30am, 27 Aug 2021

Whether America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan marks the end of US world hegemony remains to be seen. President Joe Biden has made it very clear that the United States withdrew to concentrate more on containing China’s rise – that is, extending its hegemony in a more effective and focused manner.

The US positions its relations with China within a “competition, cooperation and confrontation” formula. But as China’s vice-foreign minister, Xie Feng, said during talks with his US counterpart in Tianjin last month, the US is going all out to confront and contain China while demanding its cooperation whenever needed.

Unsurprisingly, when the Taliban swiftly took power in the Afghan capital of Kabul, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately called on Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to help with the situation.

China blames the US for thinking only about its own concerns: how can the US set out to harm or undermine China, and still demand its cooperation?

The US has fallen into a deep predicament in the face of a booming China. The American policy circle and social elite realise that, in many social, economic and governance areas – such as containing Covid-19, developing infrastructure, industrialisation, transiting to sustainable energy, achieving carbon neutrality and moving up to 5G communications – the US is either at a disadvantage or has no possibility of suppressing China right now.

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