Presidents Nixon and Carter defined their policies in the 1970s with an effort to improve US ties with China, which gave way to decades of lucrative economic partnerships across the Pacific. As the Trump Administration turns hostile toward China, a new generation of hawks are urging an historical rethink, disavowing any attempts at rapprochement.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is leading the charge both in hostility and against Nixonian policy, saying “the old paradigm of blind engagement with China simply won’t get it done.” Pompeo has made huge anti-China speeches almost daily, counseling international unity against the Chinese.
Pompeo said he believes the world needs to form a “new alliance of democracies” against China, saying the Chinese will only continue their tyranny “if we allow it.” Other analysts, however, say Pompeo is misleading to claim that “blind engagement” was ever US policy.
Rather, US rapprochement with China was a pragmatic decision of the Cold War, and almost no one ever expected it to lead to Chinese liberalization. Picking fights with China now risks worsening US-China ties, and views hostility as an end unto itself.
Put a military guy state and you get military solutions to any perceived problems. The Chinese are not like the U.S. in that the military gets a far smaller slice of the money pie than the two war parties in the U.S.give to them. They have just enough “deterence” so that any nuclear foolishness the U.S. pulls, will cost them Los Angeles and they can.do some more if things drag on. Every day isn’t Christma’s in China unlike in Washington, but they can manage “Just in Time” Delivery of deterence.
America needs to face the truth–that it is too stupid, too greedy, too corrupt, and (above all) to uncivilized to compete against China. Fat-boy Pompeo spoke the truth–the only time in his life–when he said, “we lie, we cheat, we steal.” Well, the party is over, America!
PS: Historian Arnold Toynbee said China sleeps and when she awakens the world will tremble (not from fear but seeing what China is capable of). A British historian who wrote a highly popular book on China made a very astute observation: that China is first and foremost a civilization and then a nation.
Also, China is not a capitalist country ruled by Commies, as many idiot Americans think. It is a Communist government that oversees a free-market economy.
Ran across Oscar Wilde’s quote: “America is the only country that went from barbarism into decadence, without a civilization in between.”
Love Oscar Wilde. One of my favorite Wilde quotes: “The Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.”
🙂
Solly,
Absolutely correct – rich Americans are now too selfish to pay taxes. They are too selfish to pay back anything, too selfish to allow anyone but their kids to get a chance, and too selfish to give a shit about what comes after they are gone. The one, sure cure for this kind of immature behavior is a strong dose of higher taxation. Higher wages and higher taxes are the only cure for America.
If we are such a democracy and that’s a really important distinction, put it to a vote of the American people on if we should go to war with China over a few reefs on the other side of the world. If he wants to go to war for democracy, he should declare war on gerrymandering and racist disenfranchisement. Now THERE’S an issue worthy of sending federal agents to enforce.
Scary thought voting on every issue. Interracial marriages would probably be voted down in this redneck country.
Human Rights are inherent.
That’s a good point. But in my example at least we could simply go back to checking executive power by applying The War Powers Act as its authors intended. Congress is not the most functional of bodies, but that should at least make them better at avoiding doing really destructive things like starting pointless unauthorized wars.
“the old paradigm of blind engagement with China simply won’t get it done.”
No, They will never become another pathetic colony of the US.
Agree, but stupid for the MIC to expect. Sometimes the players DON’T take their toys & cruise home.. Sometimes they break ALL the TOY’S before going home.
As shown in this article, recent developments clearly outline how the United States is threatened by China’s growing strength:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/07/mike-pompeo-and-chinas-threat-to.html
Unfortunately, Washington seems incapable of realizing that the unipolar global world order is over.
China bad. But we don’t have a problem with the CIC doing a sword dance and orb rubbing with the most oppressive regime on the planet and selling them weapons even the secret Muslim wouldn’t. A regime the “official story” says was involved with 9/11. Our hypocrisy knows no limits.
It’s the same old story: Whichever policy gets certain sectors of the country the most money, that’s the policy they will choose. As a blind alliance with Saudi Arabia is perceived to be profitable for the MIC, there can never be a critical analysis of the downside.
Richard Nixon said of the 1972 summit: “We’re using the China thaw to get the Russians shook.” Its geopolitical aim was as leverage with Moscow. Ultimately, the Cold War ended without nuclear annihilation. There is much talk today among hawks of a “new Cold War”, feeding on the dangerous illusion it will end just like the first one. But they are not reading their history.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Translate, we thought we could convince China into submission, and use it as our factory floor. As China is not playing by the rules we set up, we are picking up our marbles, and go home. So we can stop playing nicely, and show what bullying can do.
It may scare Europe, but the world is a big place. The world is a swamp, and we a tractor. Swamp always wins.
Rapprochement is something we do for our own sakes. It is not a free gift to those we did not like before we did it.
just who are the ‘democraties’ that he is referrin to? Is the US even a member?
“Is the US even a member?”
It is a tiny fraction of the population who actually rules, both in the US and countries around the world. While I am not an advocate of majority rule, even by that yardstick of “democracy,” the US doesn’t even come close.
This guy, this policy, his policy is an embarrassment. China is eating our lunch by hard work and self interested dedication while we spend our capital on our micro pal & rogue postage stamp sized thermonuclear power. Not a good fit, like the 3ft. bully. Is surely cruising for a bruising..