Opinion | China could take a leaf out of US containment policy and keep its own hard communist ideology in check
- Diplomat George Kennan’s containment policy outlived its usefulness to the US after the cold war but it might have some relevance for China today, especially in its dealings with Hong Kong
American foreign policy rarely rises to the degree of coherence recommended by its policy intellectuals and thoughtful diplomats, but without their persistence, it would be bereft of any coherence at all.
When World War II ended, for example, the American establishment came to rally around the idea of containment as the antidote to Russian communism. This emerged particularly from the insights of diplomat George Kennan, later to morph into a Princeton University icon.
But in the late 80s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and with it the need for the cold war, Washington was left with scarcely anything ominous to contain, except perhaps its own bumptious ego. That, for sure, was one huge containment campaign that flopped.
When the great Kennan died at the age of 101 in 2005, he left us as a prophet summa cum laude. But rather than departing honourably along with him, his “containment” policy lingered on to fill in the blank about China.
