Is China now just another competitor on the world stage with the United States? Are the United States and China entering a new era of mutual respect and cooperation?
Dumbing Down the China Threat
The Biden administration, however, doesn’t agree. Its latest assessment of China came at a meeting just prior to the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in November 2023. The language describing China is telling. After the summit meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the administration suddenly decided that China was no longer a “strategic competitor” but just “a competitor.” In other words, communist China is no longer an adversary.UK: China an ‘Epoch-Defining Challenge’
According to a policy paper presented to Parliament by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in May 2023, the new policy of the British government is to “update the UK’s approach to China to keep pace with the evolving and epoch-defining challenge it poses to the international order.”“First, we will increase our national security protections in those areas where Chinese Communist Party actions pose a threat to our people, prosperity and security,” the prime minister said.
Taiwan Sees the Writing on the Great Wall
Even more pressing is Taiwan’s reaction to the strategic threat that the Chinese regime poses to them. The island nation is preparing to defend itself from an invasion from the regime in response to Xi’s assertion that reunification is “inevitable.”Japan: Security Environment Most Severe Since World War II
Meanwhile, Japan is getting busy reconfiguring its entire defense strategy and military-industrial complex around the premise of an increasingly aggressive Chinese military posture in the Asia-Pacific region. Tokyo understands that the China threat is real and that the need to address it is urgent. Notably, Tokyo’s defense planners describe current threat conditions as Japan’s “most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II.”India: Technology Shapes Geopolitics
India is also adjusting its engagement levels with China because Indian policymakers realize that technology shapes geopolitics. Prior to the 2020 crisis, where Indian troops were killed by Chinese attacks, that wasn’t the case. After the military clash, India became concerned about mobile apps and Chinese browsers, data, and search engine results that were manipulated by Beijing.Consequently, India, which is China’s regional and technology rival, has moved from an economic-first trade policy to a security- and strategic-first posture with regard to China. That means assessing technology transfers and trade from a security and long-term strategic perspective, which also includes assessing China’s capabilities to weaponize otherwise nonmilitary technology.
India quickly saw the stupidity of being dependent upon technology from a strategic adversary.
US ‘De-Risking, Not Decoupling’ From China
Since China is apparently not a strategic threat to the United States or our allies, the Biden administration’s path forward for America is to engage in “de-risking ... not decoupling” with China. As a result, under this administration, the United States and China will continue to be “embedded in an extensive web of complex interdependence across all aspects of their economies and broader societies,” according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This interdependence is viewed as a stabilizing factor that raises the costs of conflict for both nations, but it’s a formula for accelerating U.S. decline in the world and inviting CCP aggression.Five Eyes: China Tech Theft on an Unprecedented Scale, a Security Threat
What’s more, just prior to President Biden’s November 2023 summit with Xi, intelligence leaders from the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand—known as the “Five Eyes"—met in October 2023 and warned that China’s intellectual property theft in technology across numerous areas is a major threat to the United States and the West and is on a scale that is unprecedented in human history.
In that same conference, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that China’s intellectual property theft from U.S. companies ranges “from Fortune 100 companies down to small startups ... in the fields of agriculture, biotech, health care, robotics, aviation, and academic research.” Mr. Wray also noted that there are about 2,000 active investigations into China’s technology theft efforts in the United States and that Chinese entities, private and state-owned, pose national security concerns by acquiring or attempting to “acquire businesses, land, and infrastructure” in the United States.
As the CCP continues encroaching on American power and influence worldwide and within the United States, U.S. policy toward China needs to be much less accommodating. A much stronger focus on denying China access to U.S. technology secrets and companies in every vertical and technology market should be Washington’s China policy.
The Biden administration has some serious explaining to do, if only someone would ask.
