By Dennis Etler
A major impediment to Sino-American relations was Trump's attempt to blame China for the failure of the US to contain and control the COVID-19 pandemic which has devastated the US economy and exacerbated domestic US social tensions both of which contributed to Trump's defeat and Biden's victory. While the US and its Western allies flounder under the impact of the pandemic, China has succeeded in defeating COVID-19 and its economy and society have returned to normal.
China has also joined with its Asian and Oceanic neighbors in forging a new free-trade pact, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is the largest in the world, encompassing about 30% of the world's GDP. It has also expressed interest in joining the free trade Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which the Trump administration withdrew from. China is also forging separate trade deals with Japan and South Korea. As the world's foremost manufacturing and trading nation, China has expanded its global influence through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and other multilateral and bilateral trade and investment initiatives with Russia, Iran, and many other countries.
Meanwhile, the former Trump administration's unilateral America First policy has frayed the alliance of Western powers and, with its withdrawal from international accords, isolated it from the global community of nations. Biden is thus faced with the formidable task of containing the COVID-19 pandemic, restoring the vitality of the US economy, and reinstating its network of alliances, all the while trying to reassert its influence in international affairs.
The US is, hence, in no position to try and impose its will on China. Unlike a decade ago when the Chinese economy still lagged behind the US, it is now the largest in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). China is also a leader in green technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum communication, and 5G, among other fields. The US under Biden, however, still feels that it is indispensable and should sit at the head of the global table.
But the global table is now a round table and there is no place for one nation to sit at its head. Unlike Trump, who wanted to go it alone, Biden's crew wants to reconstitute the US "coalition of the willing" and reengage in the failed policies of interventionism and regime change as seen in his foreign policy and national security picks who are all recycled neo-liberal apparatchiks from the Obama administration. A return to those policies, rejected by the American people, will lead to his presidency being as much of a failure as Trump's.
But, Biden has a choice. He can take Xi Jinping's advice and establish ‘healthy and stable’ relations between the world’s top two economies in the spirit of non-conflict and non-confrontation, and work towards “win-win cooperation” despite continuing conflicts over trade, technology, and security, or he can continue the US policy of interference in China's internal affairs and containment of China's growing influence. Domestic pressures will push Biden to take the latter unproductive course of action. But, if he is a true leader he will take Xi Jinping's challenge and work towards a more inclusive, peaceful, and secure world.
Dennis Etler is an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs. He’s a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California. He recorded this article for Press TV website.
No comments:
Post a Comment