Advertisement
Opinion | US-China relations need ‘planetary realism’ to avoid geopolitical and ecological apocalypse
- Former California governor Jerry Brown has turned his attention towards trying to improve US-China relations in the name of global stability
- For both countries to survive and thrive, they must find a way to cooperate as well as compete
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
14
I submit for your consideration an American political figure named Jerry Brown. He turns 84 this week but is somehow still flamboyant and relevant, if sometimes slightly annoying. I have not only grown to admire him but come to feel this lifelong politician is becoming an important world figure on the issue of China.
Advertisement
His primary cause nowadays is America’s fraught relationship with China, and he has a great deal to say about this. Across the decades, his mind would spin new policy ideas like a one-man think tank, and not everyone could keep up.
During his two eight-year terms as the governor of California – the most populous US state and a leading-edge setting for testing out new policy ideas – he was mocked as “Governor Moonbeam”.
Fighting on the environmental front – or “planetary realism”, as Brown calls it – he would tout windmills to generate electricity, solar panels on roofs to warm homes and other advanced technologies to keep California hip and edgy. He even had a dream of launching California’s very own space programme. Elon Musk was so behind.
While the critical media rarely gave him a break, he was no moonbeam with voters. Nearly three decades after his initial run as governor, voters gave him a second eight years. Launching high-profile but ill-fated runs for the White House, Brown tamped down his ego with unrelenting public service.
Advertisement
Today, he merits the title of a distinguished policy thinker. He is now on the soapbox of what America urgently needs: a more sophisticated relationship with China.
Advertisement