America’s ideological dilemma with China
- To pursue Cold War 2.0, Washington will have to explain away how Chinese ‘communism’ has been as good as, or even better than, American capitalism at delivering economic success and abundance for its people as well as much-needed growth for the world economy
The Cold War was an epic struggle between Soviet communism and American capitalism. But long before the demise of the Soviet Union, many social scientists and bureaucrats behind the Iron Curtain had realised the fatal flaws of Soviet-style economies within the communist bloc. As early as 1980, for example, the distinguished Hungarian economist Janos Kornai published his landmark critique of the planned economy in Economics of Shortage. He subsequently became one of the most influential foreign advisers to the Chinese economic reformers, but is today one of Beijing’s fiercest critics.
But back then, you didn’t need to be a clever economist to realise the problems with the Soviet economic system; long queues for daily necessities for ordinary citizens was a constant reminder of its failure.
Then as now, Americans liked to boast about the beauty and success of capitalism. But they now have a serious ideological problem as they take on, apparently contradictorily, an overtly hostile posture towards China and rapprochement with Vietnam.
How can the United States ideologically justify making an enemy of one authoritarian communist country but friends with another one? Of course, it’s not really about ideological consistency. The answer, clearly, is that American antagonism towards China is simply rooted in a traditional power struggle, one between a declining hegemon and an aspiring one.
Forget the old Cold War model or analogy. Try to come up with a more creative and constructive foreign policy response to re-engage China and the rest of the world.
By some economic measures of the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Monetary Fund, China’s economy is already the world’s largest. That is the China threat.