Opinion | US and China rivalry: Through the eyes of an American journalist

By Augustus K. Yeung

"Just as we thought US-China relations couldn't get any worse, they sank into the morass over US President Joe Biden's new business advisory on Hong Kong and sanctions against more mainland officials in the city…Was this really necessary?" Wrote Robert Delaney, the Post's North America bureau chief.

Introduction

A full year into Joe Biden's presidency, his administration is still consistently and purposedly harassing China by pursuing "issues" concerning the so-called human rights, such as "China's menacing acts of saber-rattling over the Taiwan issue", "Beijing's suppression of democracy or press freedom in Hong Kong", or "human rights violations in Xinjiang", etc.

A year after he unseated his political rival Donald Trump, ironically Joe Biden seems to be a carbon copy of his predecessor, who is best known for raising the trade war with China, among other futile fights or war of words.

With his approval ratings at the polls free falling, Joe Biden is risking his presidency for a second term. Why is the U.S. president doing what he does? And what damages his China policy is inflicting on the American businesspeople in China, or even the whole world?

Browse the Post's North America bureau chief, Robert Delaney's article; it offers some insights into some consequent questions, though we may disagree with some.

American Journalist Sees Worldwide Disasters

"This past week has been so chock full of looming environmental threats and stunning partisan stupidity that it is probably time to throw out conventional wisdom when it comes to public policy and turn to Darwinism," wrote Robert Delaney. ("US and China rivalry puts the planet at risk". South China Morning Post. Tuesday, July 20, 2021)

The devastating floods in Europe were yet another indication that we are well into a climate emergency that will affect authoritarians and "small-d" democrats alike. We were already trying to digest the news of temperatures of 49.6 degrees Celsius in Canada's British Columbia, which incinerated an entire town.

Vaccine hesitancy now appears to be our biggest threat on the COVID-19 front, particularly in the United States, where a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" is unfolding. White evangelicals, who make up a large chunk of the American South and Midwest and who dominate the Republican Party, are among the most resistant to vaccination.

"Many of them prefer to leave their chances in the hands of Jesus Christ instead of the scientific success of mRNA vaccines, even though chances of severe side effects are exceedingly small. So it is entirely fitting to bring up the notion of survival of the fittest, given that vaccine hesitancy in the midst of a pandemic could ultimately lower the ratio of people who are most responsible for spreading the disease. That might seem like a heartless comment, but there is a point in every tragedy at which we need to look for silver linings."

American Journalist Looks Through the Darwinian Lens

"Now let's stick with the Darwinian lens as we move from epidemiology to the realm of international political economics," said Mr. Delaney.

"Just when we thought US-China relations couldn't get any worse, they sank deeper into the morass over US President Joe Biden's new business advisory on Hong Kong and sanctions against more mainland officials in the city. Things were so bad already that prospects of deterioration seemed impossible without some kind of unexpected live-fire military exchange."

Was this really necessary, particularly when the US State Department was trying to organize a face-to-face meeting between Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and officials close to President Xi Jinping in Tianjin to lay the groundwork for the Xi-Biden summit?

Perhaps Biden felt the only way to limit the domestic political fallout such a meeting would cause was to tighten the screws on Hong Kong first.

"After we got the expected reactions from the authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong, US diplomats said Biden's advisory was not a warning to a 'factual account' of the escalating risks pose by Hong Kong's national security law. But any US company operating out of Hong Kong will no doubt be aware that the city's leadership is reluctant to go against the hardline political imperatives of Xi and his government…"

Will "Foreign Business Executives" be Adversely Affected?

"Will a Hong Kong administration that has worked in unison with Beijing widen its definition of troublemakers running afoul of the national security law to include foreign business executives?"

The backlash against opposition figures in Hong Kong went further than most expected, so the risks are certainly higher now than they were two years ago. But companies that weren't already weighing these risks and making contingency plans will not survive in a Darwinian global business environment.

What is lost in all this geopolitical drama is the urgency of a face-to-face meeting of the leaders of two of the world's biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries so they can agree to address the threat facing us all, regardless of ideological orientation.

Our world is warming, burning, flooding and acidifying at a rate where existing environmental measures under consideration will not save us.

The alarming hostility to science in one of the world's most technologically advanced countries only underscores the challenge the world's most populous countries face in the battle to stop the degradation of the ecosystems that feed and protect us.

"If we do not do a better job on this front, we will find ourselves in a battle for survival more literal and more threatening than a COVID-19 infection." The American globe-trotting journalist postulated.

Conclusion

This American journalist sees a handful of serious problems, ranging from social unrest to global natural disasters, etc. And he is disappointed with his own president, who is obsessed with limiting "the domestic political fallout". Instead, he prefers to focus on pursuing a US-China policy of rivalry.

Through the eyes of this American professional journalist, we share his consequential question, "Was this really necessary?"

 

The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:

Opinion | Unfreezing the Afghan's assets only to spend it on 911-victims smacks of US hypocrisy

Opinion | China's ties in 'America's backyard' grow as U.S. interest and influence ebb