For years, many American policymakers have viewed China as the United States’ economic peer—leading some to oppose decoupling for fear it would devastate the U.S. economy. But this assumption of China’s economic might is deeply flawed, write Stephen Brooks and Ben Vagle in an essay from the upcoming issue of Foreign Affairs. In reality, “the United States still has a commanding and durable advantage”—which gives Washington economic leverage to “devastate China while doing far less short-term damage and almost no long-term damage to itself.”
But just because decoupling is a viable option does not mean that Washington should rush to do it. “China can be cut off only once,” Brooks and Vagle warn, and “a peacetime decoupling” could backfire on the United States. Washington, they argue, should “keep its leverage intact for a crisis rather than undercutting one of the best weapons it has.”
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