Reference News Network June 23 report This article is an interview with Guo Enmin, senior contributor to the website of The Diplomat, and Michael Brenner, director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale University.
Guo Enmin asked: Please analyze the origins of great power competition during the Cold War.
Michael Brenner answered: During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed globally for allies, influence, and security. For many American policymakers, this competition was a matter of life and death. Although the Cold War brought some benefits to Americans, such as high-paying jobs in defense factories, it was also highly violent and destructive, further fueling conspiracy theories and xenophobia around the world.
However, when great power competition emerged in 2015 as a framework for U.S. grand strategy, the Cold War memories promoted by foreign policy makers—now used to justify a "new Cold War" with China—ignored this history. This limited, even distorted, memory of the Cold War has now become a prerequisite for great power competition with China.
This concept of great power competition, which stems from a misreading of the Cold War, is precisely what we are concerned about. It ignores the inherent violence and anti-democratic politics of the Cold War, and how they are re-emerging in the "new Cold War" with China.
Question: How does the geopolitical competition with China poison American politics?
Answer: The competition with China has encouraged a large number of ill-intentioned actors who use the Chinese threat as a tool to attack political opponents. The trend of criticizing China has permeated the American political arena, either obviously or subtly. Accusations of being "weak on China" are prevalent in mainstream politics.
We believe that the competition with China has also exacerbated xenophobia and nativism, leading to an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States, especially during the pandemic. This is particularly damaging to a multi-racial, diverse democracy like the United States. Portraying the enemy as an "other" does not boost our politics, end polarization, or unite the American public. In fact, the opposite is true.
Question: Please explain why the United States should abandon its ambition for dominance in order to achieve a sustainable balance with China.
Answer: Pursuing dominance in an increasingly multipolar era will not produce the same results as during the Cold War. Dominance can play a role within the bipolar framework of the Cold War (where one superpower could dominate another), but we are not in a "new Cold War" period. Pursuing dominance in 2025 is out of step, and the United States cannot achieve dominance in a multipolar order.
We have already seen the limitations of trying to maintain American dominance through competition with China. China far surpasses the United States in the production of climate technologies (solar, wind turbines, electric vehicles). China holds nearly 50% of the global manufacturing share and leads in industries such as steel and aluminum. The United States cannot catch up with China in these areas. Trying to dominate China in all fields and aspects is completely unreasonable and only breeds confrontation.
A better approach is to recognize that dominance or some form of dominance can be redefined to fit a multipolar order. I do not think the United States will give up its position in the world, nor will U.S. national security officials actively give it up. More likely, global circumstances will force the United States to reflect and reveal the futility of dominance, and I believe this has already happened to some extent. But in an ideal world, the United States will not wait for structural conditions to awaken us. We will work to adapt to this multipolar order while recognizing that there are many "neutral" countries in the Global South that do not want to choose between the United States and China, and that in the foreseeable future, the United States will depend economically on China, as well as those countries that rely on China's economic strength.
Question: What are the alternatives to the great power competition between the United States and China?
Answer: First, abandoning the pursuit of dominance as a means and end of U.S. foreign policy. But this also means that the United States prioritizes opportunities for cooperation with China rather than competition with it. We have listed some of these areas: committing to preventing war rather than preparing for it; cooperating with China on climate change and global debt relief; repealing protectionist and nationalist policies, including Trump's tariffs, which harm consumers, limit economic growth, and exacerbate irrational hostility toward China. Adopting a more cooperative stance can also limit the likelihood of exaggerated perceptions of the Chinese threat, and "threat inflation" is a real danger and one of the most unfortunate outcomes of the past decade of U.S.-China competition. (Translated by Zhang Lin)
This article was published on The Diplomat on June 18, titled "New Cold War Supporters Misread the Dangers of the Old Cold War," authored by Guo Enmin.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7519054262274392611/
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