Opinion | Why the US-China contest will be fought in the heartlands of America
- The US demonises China, but underestimates the real competition: the winner will be the society that takes better care of its bottom 50 per cent
- Biden’s priority should be to jump-start the American economy by cooperating with other strong and dynamic economies, including China
The real danger of this demonisation is that it leads even thoughtful Americans to believe that an open society such as the US has many natural advantages over a closed, autocratic system such as China’s. By framing it in this way, Americans cannot even conceive of the possibility of losing out to China, meaning they are seriously underestimating the challenge they face.
Having recently experienced the most painful century in their history – the century of humiliation unleashed on China by Western and Japanese forces – the Chinese believe that the American assault was the last effort by a Western power to keep China down and prevent it from occupying its rightful place in the world.
The biggest conceptual mistake that American policymakers are making is a simple one. They assume that their strategic competitor is the Chinese Communist Party, which explains the American confidence that American democracy will triumph. Yet the strategic competitor of the young American republic is a 4,000-year-old civilisation.
China is not challenging American prosperity. It is not a threat to American security, nor is it a threat to American values. On values, this would be true if China were either threatening to export its ideology to America, or threatening to undermine the electoral process there.
Neither is happening. Yet, an amazing number of Americans – even those who are thoughtful and well informed – believe China is on a mission to undermine American values.
This belief may be the result of two major misconceptions about China that have penetrated the American subconscious.
