It’s Time for a Pause in US Hysteria About China
Washington should deter Beijing from aggression. No need to hold down the Chinese economy, though — Xi Jinping is doing that already.
Those were the days. (Biden and Xi in 2011.)
Source: Bloomberg
Western foreign-policy wonks increasingly think of Russia as the storm, China as climate change — the slower but greater danger to the democratic world. So it makes sense for the US and its allies to “de-risk” their economic ties to the Middle Kingdom, avoiding dependencies and mitigating vulnerabilities. But nothing warrants the anti-Beijing hysteria that’s lately overtaken Washington on both sides of the aisle.
Prudent de-risking — a favorite term of US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan — must stay proportional and targeted. For example, President Joe Biden was right last week to restrict American money from funding Chinese companies working in semiconductors, quantum computing or artificial intelligence. All three fields are technological crucibles for military prowess in the wars of tomorrow — which could include a Sino-American clash over Taiwan or the South China Sea.