My Take | The new Middle Kingdom of the United States
- An EU paper explains how traditional Western allies on the continent are being turned into vassal states of the US as part of Washington’s strategy to contain the rise of China
China is unfairly subsidising industries, expanding its military ambitions and using debt traps to build influence in developing countries, according to Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser.
He and others have also warned that Beijing wants to replace the “rules-based” international system to take over the world, starting by dominating the Asia-Pacific and its neighbouring nations. It is, presumably, trying to restore the 21st-century version of the vassal-Middle Kingdom system of interstate relations in ancient times.
Yet he said: “We are not looking for confrontation or conflict” with China. Sullivan has been the most articulate of top US officials in formulating the counter-strategy of the Joe Biden administration – by doing all of those things it accuses China of committing, except on a much grander scale.
For example, the Biden administration has promised to mobilise trillions of dollars to “help” developing countries, much of which will involve heavy debts, to buy influence in countries the United States has long neglected, such as those in Africa and the South Pacific.
Under the guise of fighting inflation and protecting the most advanced semiconductor supplies, it is committing hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidising the US private sector. The tools it uses are known officially as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and the CHIPS and Science Act.