CHAS FREEMAN, cwfresidence@
Freeman is a noted former U.S. diplomat and a businessman with global connections. He was assistant secretary of defense for International Security Affairs from 1993-94. Freeman was the principal U.S. interpreter during Nixon’s landmark trip to China in 1972. He is now a visiting scholar at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
On Tuesday, he delivered remarks to the American Academy of Diplomacy, “U.S. China Policy: A Case of Self-Harm.” He said: “We no longer even pretend to comply with the basic agreements that we later worked out with Beijing to enable it to set the Taiwan issue aside for future peaceful resolution. Now, all the talk is about how to fight a war to determine Taiwan’s status. Both sides must know that such a war would be catastrophic for Taiwan, disastrous for both the United States and China, and severely damaging to any country that joined either us or the Chinese in the fight. But no one in Washington is attempting to find either solutions or a temporizing modus vivendi for managing Sino-American differences over Taiwan, as the Nixon administration did 50 years ago. …
“Anticipation of war with China is now the major justification for massive increases in subsidies to our military-industrial-
“But describing our effort to retard and, if possible, reverse the rise of China as ‘Cold War 2.0’ is a cop-out. It implies that our experience with the Soviet Union has somehow prepared us to contend with China and defeat it without triggering a hot war. As such, it is an exercise in denial, an excuse for fantasy foreign policy, and a justification for a counterproductive, entirely military approach to international affairs. …
“The U.S. intervention in China’s civil war in 1950 with the 7th Fleet — unlike our 1918-1920 intervention in the Russian civil war — succeeded in preventing a complete Communist victory. It detached Taiwan, part of Chinese territory, from the rest. More than 70 years later, we continue militarily to contest the borders of China. The more we do so, the more China feels obliged to challenge us. …
“In international affairs, as in physics, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Our actions have stimulated China to mirror, meet, and match our military hostility to it. …
“Our apparent determination to hang onto Taiwan as part of an American sphere of influence in East Asia and our aggressive patrolling of China’s borders with naval and air forces have provided Beijing with the justification for its rapid reconfiguration and comprehensive modernization of the PLA [People’s Liberation Army].
“The ostensible aims of the U.S. effort to crush China’s national technology champions, hobble its electronic industries, and deny it foreign markets are to reduce our dependence on global supply chains and restore American jobs and economic leadership. But the immediate effects have been to:
* “Provoke a reciprocal decision by China to reduce reliance on imports from the U.S. and to step up efforts to boost its scientific and technological self-reliance. China has now committed $265 billion to reducing its dependence on imported semiconductors.
* “Disrupt supply chains, causing component shortages that diminish economic efficiency in the U.S. while generating inflation. …”