By Philip Yeung
China has stumbled badly in football, but only in football. Off the pitch, in every sphere of endeavor, it's pure sorcery. The China magic in rewriting its own destiny has no parallel in history. It is human triumph on an epic scale. While countries in the West are paralyzed by short-term thinking, the Chinese have excelled at playing the long game.
China carries the weight of history on its shoulders. A hundred-year humiliation, a nation of stagnation wallowing in not-so-splendid isolation until late last century. Then off went the leash, and the results are Shakespearean in scope and history-making in creating a new national identity. The China model is worthy of close scrutiny by any political scientist worth their salt.
The West has been seeing China through the jaundiced eyes of America. This is unfortunate. Once upon a time, China and America shared a spiritual kinship, especially in the first half of the 20th century, thanks to the romance created by Pearl Buck and others. The relationship went sour only when America chose to throw in its lot with Chiang Kai-shek. The US had simply bet on the wrong horse and lost big.
There was a brief return to the romance during the early seventies when Nixon played the China card against the Soviet Union, its bitter rival. But that was before China became too big for America's comfort. China's rapid rise has since been painted as an existential peril to America or a frontal challenge to its world leadership. China-bashing became an institutionalized bipartisan game, made worse by the poison pens of professional China haters like Gordon Chang.
American leaders have become blind to the fact that communism in China is far from static. In fact, it has defied common logic by going hybrid---giving us socialism with Chinese characteristics tempered by the power of capitalism. China is a work in progress. To pin a simple label on China as a static entity is a huge strategic mistake.
Strangely, there are signs that subtle changes are afoot in America's attitude towards China since Trump's recent state visit to Beijing. Unlike his predecessors, Trump has shown a grudging respect and even admiration for China. He has no use for those who kowtow to him, such as NATO's secretary general. His respect is reserved for those who refuse to blink first. And China has been superb in the art of Trump-taming, neither provoking him nor appeasing him. There is a lightness to China's handling of Trump. Its leaders have read Trump like an open book. Having leverage also helps—rare earths, supply chains and all that. One-sided relationships offer no red meat to the likes of Donald Trump.
America is overdue for a rethink of its relationship with its main rival. Sanctions don't seem to work. Embargoes have backfired. In fact, they have the opposite effect of driving China into a frenzy of technological self-invention. If encirclement fails, why not try embracing China? If China containment is counterproductive, why not try cooperation? America has been drained by its non-stop wars of choice, while China has been quietly leapfrogging the West, indifferent to global domination or rivalry with America. Technological competition need not be zero-sum. Both countries could jointly harvest the limitless possibilities of AI for the greater good of humanity.
China's transformation has wowed the world. Its system of governance should be politics 101 in the West. Treating China as just another doctrinaire communist regime like Cuba or North Korea is a fool's game, for China is in a category all by itself—with its own internal logic and dynamics.
US anti-China propaganda is nothing but misleading advertising. It is detrimental to its national interests and a disservice to the welfare of the world. Opportunistic Western politicians have put their snouts in the China trough for too long. At the very least, turn China into a transactional relationship if you like, but you must first unload the label and the biases. China holds the key to solving the economic woes of the West, especially for declining middle powers like Britain.
Hostility towards China is a dead-end alley. It is too expensive an indulgence for a shrinking world. The sooner you get out of it, the better.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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