Is China betting that the U.S. can't multitask?

Posted By Thomas G. Mahnken Monday, February 15, 2010 - 2:22 PM Share

Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation has posted an interesting assessment of the Defense Department's 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, on his blog. The essay, by Liu Shuisheng of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, deserves to be read in full. It portrays the 2010 QDR as a sign of "strategic contraction" by the United States. In the author's analysis, the United States's focus on the Middle East will "further chip away at the United States' strength, aggravate its strategic adversity, and increasingly narrow the room for maneuvers on other issues." 

The essay is fresh evidence that Asians see a United States whose attention is elsewhere. As Jim Hoagland wrote in Sunday's Washington Post, America's allies and friends in the region are increasingly hedging their bets. In the case of the Chinese, one justifiable concern is that Beijing will attempt to take advantage of the United States' preoccupation elsewhere.  

As the world's sole superpower, the United States must be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Asian states appear to have their doubts.

EXPLORE:CHINA, MEDIA
 

ZATHRAS

4:49 PM ET

February 15, 2010

It Would Have Been Nice....

....if this thought had occurred to the last administration , say, seven or so years ago. The cornerstone of American preoccupation with the Middle East was laid the moment American troops crossed the border into Iraq.

You had to think it was only a matter of time before other governments picked up on the consequences of the Bush administration's decision to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into one, mid-sized Arab country. Those consequences are too numerous to list here, but it's safe to say that none of them help us very much as we strive now to maintain our position in Asia or elsewhere in the world.

 

SURESH SHETH

5:41 PM ET

February 27, 2010

Is China betting that the U.S. can't multitask?

It sounds so strange that China should emerge as a ‘new cold war foe’ when cold war was supposed to be over the day Berlin wall fell in 1989. That was so much celebrated by American conservatives and Republicans, especially since China had stopped being the ‘cold war foe’ to begin with and had become a ‘strategic partner’ when the anti-Communist Nixon embraced China to counter Soviet Union way….back in 1972.

Washington should thank Nixon/Kissinger duo for their foresight in promoting China to such a super power status and China should erect a statue of anti-communist Nixon right next to die-hard communist Mao in Beijing for making China’s rapid rise possible.

It is America’s conservatives who have elevated China to a super power status.

Afterall China was a pariah country in the world just like today’s North Korea until anti-Communist Nixon’s 1972 visit. All the West European and East Asian countries stayed away from China following the US lead until 1972 and embraced China after Nixon’s visit. While US would not give MFN status to Soviet Union (remember Jackson-Vanik amendment?) unless Russia shed Communism, it had no problem giving it to China’s Communist dictators with a capitalist mask. Trade with China expanded by leaps and bounds during 12 years of Republican rule beginning in 1981. After campaigning against butchers of Beijing in 1992 elections, even Bill Clinton became enthusiastic supporter of trade with China once he took lessons in foreign policy from Nixon in early 1993 during a special Whitehouse-arranged meeting. US also promoted China to a super power status by accepting it as a permanent UNSC member.

Reagan must be squirming in his grave for his Republican predecessor Nixon being responsible for the rise of dictatorial China as a threat to US after Reagan was supposed to have vanquished Soviet Union.

The West will desperately try to reverse the rise of China but will be largely unsuccessful. Lenin used to say that ’capitalists will sell us the ropes with which we will hang them’. With the West selling such ropes (in the form of technology transfers), China has proved that Lenin saying quite prophetic.

 

Shadow Government is a blog about U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration, written by experienced policy makers from the loyal opposition and curated by Peter D. Feaver and William Inboden.

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