By Dennis Etler
Forward march said the general as the army retreated! Such is the position that incoming US President Biden finds himself in. As the US and its erstwhile Western allies confront a worsening pandemic and deepening economic malaise, Biden and his Atlanticist advisors continue to sing the same tired song of confronting China and “holding it accountable.”
But his trusted partners are playing an entirely different tune. They realize that "confronting Beijing" is a losing game. As illustrated by the recent successful negotiation of a trade and investment pact, the EU has much more to gain by seeking accommodation and cooperation with China rather than containment and unfettered competition.
Biden talks of the West’s “shared interests” and “shared values.” But such stale rhetoric no longer resonates. What are the “shared interests” that he speaks of other than continued US economic, political and military dominance, and what are the “shared values” he so ardently champions, other than a flawed system of governance that has been shown to be corrupt and dysfunctional, unable to deal with the pressing issues of the day?
The US thinks that a vaccine against the raging pandemic is a panacea for all its ills. But the negative consequences of its failure to cope with it will be long-lasting. The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the underlying problems that the US has been unable to solve, rising inequality, systemic racism and overburdened social welfare programs, to name but a few. The US has to get its own house in order before it can hold any one to account, especially a successful nation such as China.
Many of the gripes that the US has with China are will-o’-the-wisps, illusory issues that are either non-existent, no longer relevant or subject to negotiations. This is illustrated by the successful trade and investment deals China has signed within the last couple of months. Many oft-repeated problems the US harps on, such as alleged IP theft, technology transfer and the like, are legacy issues that China has already addressed, while the US focus on China’s supposed human rights abuses are made up from whole cloth, fabricated by the US to inflame public opinion and create leverage in its dealings with a rising power. Recent events in the US show how hypocritical it is in accusing others of violating human rights when their abuse in the US is rampant.
As Trump's failed trade war has shown, China can deal with anything the US throws at it. Attempts to shut down China's burgeoning tech sector with sanctions and embargoes will also come to naught. They will simply incentivize China to develop its own autonomous capacities and accelerate its independence from unreliable US vendors. The real losers are US microchip manufacturers who will forfeit their share of the booming Chinese market and hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.
The US has to take its head out of the sand and look around. The landscape is no longer what it once was. The US is in no position to hold anyone accountable but itself, and the sooner it realizes that the better.
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.
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