Andrew Leung

Opinion | The 5 major blind spots pushing the US into conflict with China

As US-China tensions escalate, the next presidential administration must reckon with misplaced narratives that undergird American policy

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Andrew Leung

Published: 5:30am, 3 Oct 2024Updated: 7:03am, 3 Oct 2024

With the United States House of Representatives backing a US$1.6 billion anti-China bill, tense bilateral relations are set to get a lot worse. There is entrenched bipartisan consensus that a rising China represents an existential threat to America’s best interests, supported by increasingly negative American public opinion towards China.

While agreeing on guard rails against war between two major nuclear powers, neither Democratic nominee Kamala Harris nor Republican nominee Donald Trump wants to appear weak on China. Any difference between their China policies is more nuance than substance.

Exceptionalism or hegemonic hubris aside, what is driving America’s nationwide hostility towards China are some deep-seated blind spots and misplaced narratives. They need to be debunked if US-China relations are not to derail into kinetic conflict.

First, the rhetoric of “democracy vs autocracy” implies that the Communist Party of China is illegitimate absent Western-style elections. Apart from the fact that US-style democracy often fails to deliver better outcomes for the people and the country concerned, elections are only a process. What counts is the outcome for the people in terms of better lives and standards of living.

According to research from Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Centre Report in 2020 and the Edelman Trust Barometer in 2024, the Communist Party’s governance is ahead of many others in terms of trust and support by their peoples, multiple ranks above Western democracies including the United States.

Partnering with Gallup, a Washington-based multinational advisory, the World Happiness Report 2024 by Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre ranks China sixth in terms of gains in people’s happiness from 2006-2023, outperforming many countries, including the US, which is ranked 120th by the report.