The United States only seems to be obsessed with TikTok and Huawei, the Washington-based think tank. (Photo file)
Washington:
The Trump administration in recent weeks only appears to be focused on two Chinese companies – TikTok and Huawei, a Washington-based think tank said while suggesting the United States should focus more on expansive corporate operations. Chinese states that quietly dominate the global infrastructure, telecommunications, transportation, energy and financial services sectors.
While these companies undoubtedly raise clear and important concerns, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said the United States would need to show more strategic maturity if it also focused on operations. of China Communications Construction Company, COSCO Shipping and State Grid.
“Where the United States pays attention to China’s rising global architecture, like the Belt and Road Initiative or the digital Silk Road, it learns the wrong lessons, immediately falling into conversations about how to “match” China’s efforts, “Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in Chinese Studies at CSIS, said in the report.
“The United States will never be able to replicate China’s ability to supply the entire value chain of finance, construction, labor and technology to countries in Africa and Africa. Latin America at scale and at the speed they demand, so why try when the United States China’s global influence, while widespread, is fundamentally weak, relying mostly on its checkbook and ability to wield targeted pressure. “
“Instead of just mirroring China, a better approach would be to play on the significant strengths of the United States, which are much more robust and enduring,” added Blanchette.
The report says the United States is alternating between two formulations of Chinese power – it is either on the verge of collapse or on the verge of taking over the world. But both of these views are deceptive and self-defeating, the report says.
“The CCP’s endurance is often underestimated when viewed solely from the risk side of the ledger – its growing debt, worker protests, declining productivity, or the over-centralization of power by the Chinese Communist Party. These are real challenges, but they must be balanced with institutional resilience, which combines repression, co-option, persuasion and innovation in governance, ”he said.
But more importantly, the United States must articulate a vision – a grand strategy – that goes beyond the narrower issue of China to describe the type of world order that the United States aims to help achieve and to protect, suggested the think tank.
“Certainly, Chinese President Xi Jinping does not make the same mistake, and under his rule, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) clearly articulated a vision of world leadership – an illiberal vision for sure – but Beijing understands that the narrowing its grand strategy for an “American strategy” is both short-term and necessarily limiting. Here, the United States holds most of the cards, in terms of global appeal, thickness of allies, robustness of technological capabilities and military might. Why, in the face of all these obvious forces, does the United States not capitalize on them? Imagine if the United States took the lead in the litany of challenges – some existential ones – that the planet now faces: climate change, inequality, racial injustice, poverty Few people expect, or want, Beijing to be the leader in any of these areas. Many are hoping that the United States will eventually do so, ”a- he declared.
Therefore, from fixation on the designation of Covid-19 as a “Chinese virus” to recent measures to limit the number of foreign students studying in the United States, these actions seem at first glance to “stand up” to China. . In reality, they undermine the serious work the United States is doing to address strategic competition, and they are leaving the country impoverished and unmoored while doing little to shake or adjust China’s long-term ambitions, said. Blanchette in the report. .
