China watchers in US debate ‘strategic competitor’ label Donald Trump has pinned on Beijing
- At a Council on Foreign Relations event in New York, experts disagree about whether the US president’s assessment of China is overblown
- Singled out for criticism are the Chinese policy meant to produce domestic tech champions and a law making it more difficult for foreign NGOs to operate
Prominent China policy analysts clashed in New York on Tuesday over Washington’s portrayal of the country as a strategic competitor, a designation that has defined US President Donald Trump’s hard-line approach to Beijing since he started a bilateral trade war last year.
“Does anybody bother to point out that Chinese payments of royalties have increased from US$10 billion 10 years ago to US$30 billion now?” asked Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations, referring to revenues US companies make from their China operations.
At an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Orlins debated Elizabeth Economy, CFR’s director of Asia studies, and Ely Ratner, director of studies at the Centre for a New American Security and former State Department official. The discussion was moderated by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
Orlins said allegations that China was mainly responsible for the loss of millions of American jobs and corporate revenue were “misstatements” that China watchers had not corrected.
“I don’t disagree that [China is] an economic and diplomatic competitor, but when we brand them a strategic competitor, when have a national defence strategy which says we need to spend what it takes to defeat and deter this revisionist power, that diverts spending from what we really need to compete with China to the strategic side, and punishes social programmes, education and infrastructure investment, which has terrible policy consequences for America,” Orlins said.