“Competition with China has begun to consume U.S. foreign policy,” Jessica Chen Weiss writes in a new essay. U.S. policymakers “are becoming so focused on countering China that they risk losing sight of the affirmative interests and values that should underpin U.S. strategy.”
Washington’s “well-warranted alarm” regarding Beijing’s authoritarian streak risks “morphing into a reflexive fear that could reshape American policy and society in counterproductive and ultimately harmful ways,” argues Weiss. “The current course will not just bring indefinite deterioration of the U.S.-Chinese relationship and a growing danger of catastrophic conflict; it also threatens to undermine the sustainability of American leadership in the world and the vitality of American society and democracy at home.”
Read more from Foreign Affairs on the rivalry between the United States and China:
“China on the Offensive” by Bonny Lin and Jude Blanchette
“How America Can Both Challenge and Coexist With China” by Kurt M. Campbell and Jake Sullivan
“How to Keep U.S.-Chinese Confrontation From Ending in Calamity” by Kevin Rudd
“The New China Scare” by Fareed Zakaria
“The American and Chinese Quests to Win Hearts and Minds” by Maria Repnikova
“The Inevitable Rivalry” by John J. Mearsheimer
