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US-China relations
OpinionComment
Wang Wen
Wang Wen

Opinion | US-China hostility must end for the benefit of both countries – and the rest of the world

  • The relentless China bashing that has given way to tit-for-tat military posturing is depressing, as closed mindsets feed paranoia
  • That US-China trade has grown despite the tensions signals the strong natural drive for partnership and cooperation

Reading Time:3 minutes
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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Wang Wen
Here we go again. A giant Chinese balloon floats across North America, and US politicians want to shoot it, and China, down. Surely the sabre rattlers know how much is at stake – and how little another kerfuffle will mean to the symbiotic aspirations of good people on both sides of the Pacific.
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The ballyhoo over the balloon won’t make a pinprick in the billions of dollars’ worth of trade between the two countries that occur every month. This voluminous commerce is one of the greatest achievements in human history, and foundational to both countries’ success.
The Chinese people get jobs and resources to rebuild their country, and a sense of growing prosperity; the US gets shelves stacked with affordable goods that keep consumers content, and some of the best brains China has to offer. Over the past 30 years, there have been military incidents and fears of imminent confrontation, yet the sky remains the limit for the helium-filled trade between the two countries.

Since Donald Trump, however, the chest-thumping animosity has felt very different. Intractable ideological differences have become increasingly heated, but I’m not talking about the contradictions between the two countries.

China has become the whipping boy that soothes the bitter acrimony between the hard right and left in the United States. Hostility towards China is just about their only common ground, and no one dares to diverge from this demagoguery.
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The hotter the rhetoric, the more cliquey they become. Few in Congress or beyond are willing to speak a single conciliatory word about China. Yet our codependent commerce flourishes unabated.

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