U.S. must take more hard-lined approach to People’s Republic of China
Most Americans balk at the idea of the United States engaging in another Cold War competition, and they have every right to be skeptical of added resources when the U.S. domestic industrial base and economy are becoming more beleaguered by the year. This is not, however, a fight in which we have the opportunity to sit out. For the Chinese Communist Party, the Cold War did not end with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1991; it only continued. Rapid industrialization and globalization provided China with the means to increase its global soft and hard power. The CCP is often portrayed as a masterful entity responsible for the success of its so-called economic miracle, yet the hardworking Chinese people are often left out of this calculus.
It was only when the CCP got out of the way of its citizens that tectonic shifts in the country’s economy came to fruition. Western firms and governments were allowed to expand their access to Chinese markets, albeit under the guise of forced joint ventures and subsequent incidents of technology theft, which enabled the Chinese people to prosper.
The CCP utilized these carefully crafted “openings” to strengthen its propaganda apparatus and rewrite the meaning of reciprocity itself. The United States, therefore, has no option but to defend its interests and engage with the CCP on a footing of equal diplomatic, economic and media reciprocity.
The U.S. and its partners should continue to message the PRC that they will engage on topics of mutual interest only when the terms of engagement are defined in the context of an acceptable scope of reciprocity.
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