Joseph Nye: The U.S. must avoid thinking of China as a "villain."

On October 17, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun published an article titled "Great Power Competition in the United States" by Harvard University Professor Joseph Nye. The United States and its allies must avoid viewing China as a "villain" and instead view its relationship with China as a "cooperative competitive relationship." The full text is excerpted below:

During the 40 years of the Cold War, the United States had a grand strategy focused on containing the Soviet Union. Affected by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States lost its compass like the North Star.

After the 9/11 attacks of 2001, the George W. Bush administration filled the void with a strategy called "Combating Terrorism on a Global Scale." But the guidelines are too vague and lead long-running U.S.-led wars to non-core regions such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

Terrorism is like "jiu-jitsu", even if it is the weaker party, it can counteract the powerful power of the opponent against the opponent.

The 9/11 attacks killed some 2,900 American civilians, but in america's "endless war" against terrorism, many more lives were lost and trillions of dollars were lost. The Obama administration, which was committed to returning to Asia, which was then the fastest growing economy, was mired in the Middle East.

Beginning in 2017, the United States returned to "great power competition," this time against China. Establishing a "great power competition strategy" may help the United States to re-focus, but there are many problems.

The concept of "hostile relations between great powers" actually rings the alarm bell that is not commensurate with the new threats we face. National security and global political issues began to change in 1914 and 1945, respectively, but U.S. strategy today does not fully reflect the new global threat of environmental problems.

Global climate change could cost trillions of dollars, causing harm to humanity comparable to war. The global pandemic of COVID-19 has caused far more deaths in the United States than all the world wars the United States fought in after World War II combined.

If the United States continues its previous strategy, the Department of Defense will receive more than 100 times the BUDGET of the CDC and 25 times that of the National Institutes of Health. Meanwhile, U.S. policymakers are discussing policies to deal with China. Some politicians and experts have called the status quo a "new Cold War." But embedding China in a framework of ideological antagonism does not accurately describe the "strategic threat" facing the United States.

The United States and the Soviet Union had little contact at the trade level and at the societal level. But the United States and its allies have a close trade relationship with China.

The number of countries with China as the largest trading partner is higher than that of the United States as the largest trading partner. The United States is trying to strip away the so-called "risks" from China. However, if the scale of trade with China is reduced across the board, the cost will be enormous. Even if economic ties are severed, environmental interdependence will still be governed by biological and physical laws, not political will. "Decoupling" is impossible.

Moreover, the United States cannot face issues such as climate change and a global pandemic on its own, so it is important to recognize that there is a force that can be used together. The United States sometimes has to work with China when dealing with global issues.

China is the world's second-largest economy, and its gross domestic product could catch up with or even surpass that of the United States by the 2930s.

The United States and its allies must avoid seeing China as a "villain" and instead see its relationship with China as a "cooperative competitive relationship." If these conditions are in place, we may be able to smoothly handle our relations with China. Of course, recognize that this is different from the great power competition of the 20th century.

Source: Reference News Network