When US hawks call China’s Communist Party a threat to world peace, it’s no longer just rhetoric
- In differentiating between the communist regime and the Chinese people, Mike Pompeo has escalated the US-China struggle
- His words are not propaganda. They are cold, hard policy
But rhetoric on the campaign trail and action in office are quite different things. What has been surprising about Trump’s first term is quite how much of the rhetoric has become official White House policy, as can be seen in recent statements by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice-President Mike Pence.
Don’t be fooled. The US and China have done a deal, but it’s not the real deal
The speeches suggest a fundamental shift in America’s long-standing policy of seeking engagement with Beijing – a policy it has held since Richard Nixon’s ice-breaking trip to China in 1972.
In what might be likened to the famous “Iron Curtain” speech of former British prime minister Winston Churchill, widely seen as ushering in the cold war, Pompeo appeared to announce the beginning of a new cold war by declaring the party to be an enemy of the US.
Interestingly, Pompeo made a point of separating the communist regime from the Chinese people, saying: “China threatens American freedoms … It’s not the Chinese people that are the problem. It’s the Communist Party of China.” That statement may indicate he or the administration wants to see a fundamental change in the party, or even for the party to fall.
Of course, Beijing reacted to this with harsh words, accusing Pompeo of deliberately distorting China’s domestic and foreign policies, and saying his words exposed deep-rooted political prejudice.
Such developments reinforce fears of what historians call the Thucydides Trap, when rivalry between an established power and a rising one – originally Sparta and Athens – results in war.
What makes this such a real worry is that the rivalry is about fundamental differences over values, ideology and philosophy of rule. The US hopes China will go along the path to free democracy and find a place in the US-led global order, on the heels of decades of economic advances. But the communist leadership sees freedom and democracy as nothing more than a US plot to overthrow its rule. Since Xi came to office, he has made maintaining the one-party system and his personal absolute grip on power his top priority.
Chinese soft power is a carrot being undermined by a stick
If anything, in recent years China has only become more incompatible with what Washington had hoped for. Its shifts towards more authoritarian rule to embrace elements of Marxist orthodoxy, Leninist political repression, Stalinist planning economics and ultra-leftist Maoist policies have scared strategists in the capitals of the free West. The political consensus within and outside Washington is that the rising communist power, as Pompeo suggested, has become a threat to world peace.
With its rising economic clout, China has become increasingly assertive in its foreign policies. As part of Xi’s “Chinese dream” of “national rejuvenation”, Beijing has ramped up efforts to secure its geostrategic flanks to prepare for its ascent into the upper echelons of global power, sending a clear challenge to US dominance.
With its options for constraining Beijing’s power receding, Washington has increasingly found itself under pressure to step up competitive actions to contain China and protect US interests and those of its allies in Asia.
China’s National Day show of military muscle risks backfiring
Obviously, Pence and Pompeo, as the most senior cabinet members, would not be hitting China so hard without Trump’s approval. Or they might be speaking on behalf of Trump himself. What they have said is no longer rhetoric. It is not mere words, and it is not propaganda – but cold, hard policy.
But it has come to little. The relationship is at its lowest point since Nixon. Indeed, China hawks are calling for a “de-Nixonisation” of ties and a decoupling of the world’s two largest economies.
The challenge facing Chinese strategists and diplomats now is not only how to deal with the rising voices of Washington’s many China hawks. It is also about finding policies that reconnect with the many China doves that once were vocal. The biggest question now is who are China’s sympathisers in Washington – and will they please stand up? ■ ■
Cary Huang is a veteran China affairs columnist, having written on the topic since the early 1990s