Opinion | US-China tensions are being fanned by miscalculations and media sensationalism

The miscalculations of decision-makers are compounded by unhelpful media coverage from both sides, further reducing the room for diplomatic manoeuvres

A new way of engagement, involving tactful diplomacy and timely communication, is urgently needed to avert a superpower showdown

Reading Time:3 minutes

A man reacts after reading a newspaper report on China’s protest against the US shooting down a Chinese balloon at a news-stand in Beijing on February 6. Photo: AP

Published: 1:00am, 28 Mar 2023

“Frank one. Splash One.” As the US fighter jet pilot announced the breaking up of an alleged Chinese spy balloon in mid-air, so too did hopes of a rapprochement between China and the United States. Tensions, already high after a series of diplomatic spats, went up a notch.

Earlier this month, Chinese leaders criticised the US as the force behind the “containment and suppression” of China and warned of the risk of “conflict and confrontation”. Meanwhile, the US government has imposed a new round of sanctions on Chinese companies and revived the “lab leak” theory on the origins of Covid-19. It is almost as if the two countries are plotting a collision course.

Current tensions reflect miscalculations in both countries’ decision-making frameworks and the misperceptions propagated by their media and so-called pundits.

The US strategy of competition without conflict with China is fundamentally a paradox, especially given its policy of economic and technological containment. A rising power facing serious threats to its economic lifeline may well resort to violent means to secure its future, as the Japanese empire did in the 1940s in the face of the international embargo.

Thus, Beijing’s desire for a less aggressive Washington is unrealistic. Seeing itself as the bastion of democracy, America will use subversion and open conflict to maintain its role in the global order it has constructed when it perceives existential challenges to its ideological supremacy. Take, for example, the Vietnam war and Latin America during the Cold War.

While the ideas of competition without conflict and compartmentalised cooperation are the logical products of the interconnectedness of China and the US, such goals are also unattainable and misleading. After Nancy Pelosi, then the US House Speaker, visited Taiwan last August, China suspended cooperation with the US on climate change and drug trafficking. There is hardly any cooperation in this competition.