The Fruits of Discord: Seven Years of Sino-American Antagonism

Remarks to the University of San Francisco

Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)
Visiting Scholar, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University
By video 17 April 2024

Seven years ago, then President Trump launched a U.S. trade war on China. In accordance with contemporary American praxis, this was a “forever war” – a constantly widening and escalating campaign with an ever-heavier military component, open-ended objectives, no criteria for judging success or failure, and no strategy for its termination.

Seven years into open economic and technological war on China, it is surely time to take stock of results to date. So, I want to address the many ways in which Sino-American antagonism is changing China, Asia, the United States, and the world politico-economic order.

The Biden administration has proclaimed three high-minded goals for U.S. policy toward China:

“1) Invest: to invest in the foundations of our strength at home – our competitiveness, our innovation, our resilience, our democracy,

“2) Align: to align our efforts with our network of allies and partners, acting with common purpose and in common cause, and

“3) Compete: to compete responsibly with the PRC to defend our interests and build our vision for the future.”

This agenda effectively plays to the crowd. It deems China to be an adversary and conspicuously omits any reference to cooperation with it. Its three points boil down to:

• getting our national act back together,
• convincing other countries to help us retard or reverse the rise of China and
• blocking China from gaining international influence at the expense of our continued global primacy.

How are we doing at this? It’s time for a point-by-point assessment.

Read more: https://chasfreeman.net/the-fruits-of-discord-seven-years-of-sino-american-antagonism/

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https://chasfreeman.net/

Chas Freeman chairs Projects International, Inc.  For more than four decades, Projects International has helped its partner enterprises and clients to create business ventures across borders.  It facilitates their establishment of new businesses through the design,  negotiation, capitalization, and implementation of greenfield investments, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, franchises, one-off transactions, sales and agencies in other countries.  The firm operates on five continents.

Ambassador Freeman is a career diplomat (retired) who was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1993-94, earning the highest public service awards of the Department of Defense for his roles in designing a NATO-centered post-Cold War European security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China. He served as U. S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm). He was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the historic U.S. mediation of Namibian independence from South Africa and Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola.

Ambassador Freeman worked as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires in the American embassies at both Bangkok (1984-1986) and Beijing (1981-1984). He was Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1979-1981. He was the principal American interpreter during the late President Nixon’s path-breaking visit to China in 1972. In addition to his Middle Eastern, African, East Asian and European diplomatic experience, he had a tour of duty in India.