Some elites in Washington make no attempt to improve
themselves when facing competition with China and dealing with domestic woes,
instead, they dedicate themselves to taking China down through committing
sabotage.
Former
US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers warned US policymakers to focus on
building the country's own economic strengths in its contest with China, rather
than attacking its adversary.
"If we change our focus from building ourselves up to
tearing China down, I think we will be making a very risky and very unfortunate
choice," he was quoted as saying, according to Bloomberg's report.
The
primary reason why Washington focuses on "tearing China down," rather
than concentrate on its own innovation, infrastructure, education and
challenges lies in the US political system's structural contradictions.
The US is now trapped in conundrums such as the loss of
manufacturing capability, the hollowing out of local industries, and the
asymmetric distribution of benefits from global trade among different groups in
the country. For the US, the top capitalist country, the excessive expansion of
financial capital will inevitably lead to the emergence of the above mentioned
problems.
If the
US wants to improve itself as Summers suggested, it must overcome the
constraints of its system and carry out domestic reforms to curb the excessive
expansion of financial capital, implement a fairer tax policy, and manage the
wide income distribution gap between different groups. It also needs to plan
and guide national innovation through policies so as to enhance the creativity
and competitiveness of the country. However, unless the US becomes a socialist
country, these are difficult to accomplish under its existing capitalist
framework, Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and
Public Affairs of Fudan University, told the Global Times.
In addition, reforms require short-term costs, but under the
current US system with political parties facing pressure of winning more votes
in the elections, any reforms demanding short-term costs cannot be implemented
in the US unless the two parties reach a consensus," said Shen.
The
simpler solution, for both parties, is to "hoax" the American public
that the US has been running smoothly and that the main obstacle for US'
development is because of a "bad" country. Both Republicans and their
Democratic counterparts claim that they can help deal with the "bad"
country if elected, so as to solve their current predicament. To win the
election, the two parties have been intensifying their steps to contain China.
As a matter of fact, there is nothing complicated about what
is the proper solution for the US, and many elites, including Summers, are
fully aware of it. Shen noted that the US seems to stay in a paralysis state,
under which the brain is actually sober, but the body cannot operate according
to people's thoughts.
This is
how Washington's strategic anxiety in terms of China policy has been
formulated. In this context, decision-makers have been given some absurd
advice, with strong gambling and speculative mentality.
Furthermore, US term of office and election determine that
the government has very limited time to carry out practical policies, as much time
is spent on election and buck-passing. Such a nature of US political games also
determines that Washington has little time to make remarkable changes.
Only when the entire US reaches a new consensus, realizing
that US problems do not lie in China, but the US itself, can the US make
fundamental changes on its China policy. Until that day comes, what Summers
proposed will not take place.
