<![CDATA[When US hawks call China's Communist Party a threat to world peace, it's no longer just rhetoric]>
Given that China-bashing has dominated all US presidential campaigns since the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989, it's no surprise that China hawks are in abundance in Washington these days.
The Donald Trump presidency has only highlighted this trend. After all, he won the election on a platform promoted by authors like Peter Navarro, who wrote Death by China: Confronting the Dragon, and Michael Pillsbury, who penned The Hundred-year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower. It would be naive to think the rhetoric ahead of next year's election would be any different.
But rhetoric on the campaign trail and action in office are quite different things. What has been surprising about Trump's first term is quite how much of the rhetoric has become official White House policy, as can be seen in recent statements by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice-President Mike Pence.
US Vice-President Mike Pence. Photo: AFP alt=US Vice-President Mike Pence. Photo: AFP
On October 30, Pompeo began a series of speeches titled "The China Challenge", covering what he sees as conflicts between the US and China on issues ranging from ideologies and values, and economics to human rights and defence. That came just a week after a speech by Pence that accused Beijing of everything from unfair trade practices to rampant human rights abuses to expansionist foreign policies.
What seems strange is that these speeches come amid an anticipated US-China detente, with negotiators from both countries finalising a partial trade deal to be signed by Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this month, after an 18-month-long tit-for-tat tariff war.
The speeches suggest a fundamental shift in America's long-standing policy of seeking engagement with Beijing " a policy it has held since Richard Nixon's ice-breaking trip to China in 1972.
Pompeo's speech, in particular, appears to have upped the ante, as he directly pointed the finger at China's ruling Communist Party and its leadership, which he painted as the main threat to America's core values and interests, and even world peace.
Then US President Richard Nixon with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Shanghai in 1972. Photo: AP alt=Then US President Richard Nixon with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Shanghai in 1972. Photo: AP
In what might be likened to the famous "Iron Curtain" speech of former British prime minister Winston Churchill, widely seen as ushering in the cold war, Pompeo appeared to announce the beginning of a new cold war by declaring the party to be an enemy of the US.
Such claims haven't been heard since Nixon. Not only did the top US diplomat identify the party as being "truly hostile to the United States", but he also said the "Marxist-Leninist party is focused on a struggle and international domination ... and needs to be confronted".
Interestingly, Pompeo made a point of separating the communist regime from the Chinese people, saying: "China threatens American freedoms ... It's not the Chinese people that are the problem. It's the Communist Party of China." That statement may indicate he or the administration wants to see a fundamental change in the party, or even for the party to fall.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is a China hawk. Photo: AP alt=US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is a China hawk. Photo: AP
Of course, Beijing reacted to this with harsh words, accusing Pompeo of deliberately distorting China's domestic and foreign policies, and saying his words exposed deep-rooted political prejudice.
The rhetoric from both sides reveals deep-seated disagreements on fundamental issues, and proves the escalating tensions have gone far beyond the trade war. It also dents optimism that a recent mini-deal between the countries could still avert a catastrophic full-blown trade war.
Such developments reinforce fears of what historians call the Thucydides Trap, when rivalry between an established power and a rising one " originally Sparta and Athens " results in war.
What makes this such a real worry is that the rivalry is about fundamental differences over values, ideology and philosophy of rule. The US hopes China will go along the path to free democracy and find a place in the US-led global order, on the heels of decades of economic advances. But the communist leadership sees freedom and democracy as nothing more than a US plot to overthrow its rule. Since Xi came to office, he has made maintaining the one-party system and his personal absolute grip on power his top priority.
If anything, in recent years China has only become more incompatible with what Washington had hoped for. Its shifts towards more authoritarian rule to embrace elements of Marxist orthodoxy, Leninist political repression, Stalinist planning economics and ultra-leftist Maoist policies have scared strategists in the capitals of the free West. The political consensus within and outside Washington is that the rising communist power, as Pompeo suggested, has become a threat to world peace.
With its rising economic clout, China has become increasingly assertive in its foreign policies. As part of Xi's "Chinese dream" of "national rejuvenation", Beijing has ramped up efforts to secure its geostrategic flanks to prepare for its ascent into the upper echelons of global power, sending a clear challenge to US dominance.
Disagreements between the world's free democracy leader and last major communist-ruled nation have widened in recent years to cover multiple fronts, from trade to technology, currency to human rights, to regional and global security. Further divisions exist over Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan and Hong Kong, all of which Beijing believes are internal affairs.
The US and its allies have also become increasingly worried over Beijing's posture on its territorial claims and maritime disputes with neighbouring countries in the East and South China Seas, and its ambition to dominate vast ocean routes which are crucial for both global commerce and security.
With its options for constraining Beijing's power receding, Washington has increasingly found itself under pressure to step up competitive actions to contain China and protect US interests and those of its allies in Asia.
Obviously, Pence and Pompeo, as the most senior cabinet members, would not be hitting China so hard without Trump's approval. Or they might be speaking on behalf of Trump himself. What they have said is no longer rhetoric. It is not mere words, and it is not propaganda " but cold, hard policy.
Ever since the Mao-Nixon meeting, Chinese leaders have spared no efforts in trying to improve US-China relations. Xi himself characterises this as China's top foreign policy priority and the world's most important diplomatic relationship. Beijing has invested heavily in publicity and political lobbying in Washington in recent years.
But it has come to little. The relationship is at its lowest point since Nixon. Indeed, China hawks are calling for a "de-Nixonisation" of ties and a decoupling of the world's two largest economies.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
