Not just ‘containment’: America’s real goal may be to undermine China’s Communist Party

David Zweig questions the wisdom of China’s flashy arrival on the global stage, as it seems to have invited a counter-attack from the US that is looking increasingly like an effort to not just limit China’s growth, but also undercut the party’s legitimacy

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Published: 3:00am, 20 Oct 2018Updated: 8:06am, 20 Oct 2018

In the run-up to the anniversary of China’s reform and opening up this December, commentators have been assessing the country’s foreign policy over these past 40 years, including the Chinese leadership’s decision, circa 2009, to gradually replace Deng Xiaoping’s strategy of “lying low” until China was fully prepared to challenge the US.

The massive economic blow suffered by America due to the 2008 global financial crisis emboldened some Chinese to argue that the time had arrived for China to be more assertive on the global stage. But they clearly misjudged what a hostile US president could do to confront this latest challenge to its global hegemony. The current counter-attack by US President Donald Trump suggests that, in retrospect, President Xi Jinping, with his push for national rejuvenation, probably “jumped the gun”.

After the “century of humiliation”, China’s remarkable increase in its national power has rightfully generated enormous pride. But suppressing the hubris that comes with such a rapid rise may have been a key component of Deng’s message. So, waiting another five to 10 years before flexing its muscles might have been far more judicious.

Let me elaborate. While China is the trading partner of the world, it remains highly vulnerable to outside pressure. China exports to the US about three times as much as it imports from the US, complicating retaliation by China in a head-on confrontation. China remains deeply dependent on importing American and European technology.

Thus ZTE, China’s telecommunications giant, faced collapse when the US government forbade American companies to supply it with the core technologies that comprised a significant part of its final product.

Not just ‘containment’: America’s real goal may be to undermine China’s Communist Party

David Zweig questions the wisdom of China’s flashy arrival on the global stage, as it seems to have invited a counter-attack from the US that is looking increasingly like an effort to not just limit China’s growth, but also undercut the party’s legitimacy

Watch: ZTE ban lifted even as the trade war escalated