Jimu news reporter Song Qingying
More and more American politicians and policymakers are viewing China as a "Cold War" target, but Joseph Nye, a professor at Harvard University in the United States and a former senior US defense official, has sounded the alarm bell for the United States, the United States is facing challenges from China in an all-round way, and it is bound to be self-inflicted on china with the traditional Cold War mentality, and comprehensive alliance with Western countries at the military, economic, and social levels is the best strategy to counter China. Joseph Nye is best known for being the first to propose the concept of "soft power".
Image source: Reuters
Today's China is not the Soviet Union of that year
On November 2, the New York Times published an opinion piece by Joseph Nye. Nye proposed that the United States is fighting a "cold war" with China, but this idea is neither in the practical interest nor conducive to the future of the United States.
Nye compares the current situation with that of the United States and the Soviet Union at the time of the struggle for hegemony. He argues that while neither the U.S. conflict with the Soviet Union nor China has risen to a full-blown conflict, the situation is very different. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was a direct military and ideological threat to the United States, but there were few economic or social ties between the United States and the Soviet Union, so containing the Soviet Union was a viable goal.
Policymakers have limited competition with China to the traditional Cold War mentality, and in fact competition with China is a three-dimensional game, and if the United States continues to play two-dimensional chess, it will definitely lose. At present, China and the United States are competing in the three dimensions of military, economic and social, so simply comparing competition with China to a "cold war" underestimates the real challenges facing the United States, and policymakers will provide ineffective strategies to mislead the public.
Biden's move also shows that his China strategy has also been influenced by the Cold War mentality, and Biden needs to ensure that his China strategy is in line with the new reality.
The United States should not try to decouple from China
Economically, the United States and China share deep interdependence. In 2020, the Trump administration led the Sino-US trade war, and Trump administration officials talked about "decoupling" the U.S. economy from China, but encountered a challenging reality: China increased imports of American goods, and U.S. companies continued to invest in China, with a related trade volume of about $1 trillion.
And China reportedly has more trading partners than the United States, and the Idea of the United States trying to "decouple" other countries from China's economy is also unrealistic.
The United States and China also have deep social ties, and tourism and education exchanges between the two countries are very frequent, and china and the United States cannot decouple in response to ecological issues such as the epidemic and climate change.
Nye pointed out that the United States still regards itself as the only true global power with its traditional military superiority, but China's military power is constantly rising, and if the United States still looks at China in the old eyes, it will beg for itself.
In the new era, the United States is united in vertical and horizontal
Nye argues that the United States must unite with Western countries in the economic, political, and social spheres to contain China's development.
In the economic sector, the United States has also ignored the trend of economic multipolarization, the United States' trade policy towards East Asia is not perfect, and the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership has also left loopholes in important trade areas.
On the issue of international climate and epidemic, the United States has also forgotten that no country can solve the problems of climate change and epidemic alone, and multinational companies and non-governmental organizations have played an important role. On international issues, the United States needs to strengthen cooperation with international institutions and conclude more international treaties, such as participation in the recent United Nations climate conference and the Paris climate agreement.
In terms of political confrontation, Nye believes that today's politics is different from the Cold War era, China is not simply exporting communism, political and economic interdependence.
Therefore, he believes that the United States should also take the economic approach of alliances with other countries, such as trade agreements such as the recent export of nuclear submarine technology to Australia. Domestically, the United States must strengthen its technological superiority. Militarily, the United States needs to incorporate new technologies and strengthen strategic alliances with other countries.
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