China’s America Policy: Back to the Future

US-China ties are worse than they have been at any time since the early 1960s, and likely will deteriorate further and more dangerously unless Washington and Beijing take steps that neither is yet willing or able to. Current tensions were years in the making, have multiple causes, and will persist for the indefinite future. There is no quick fix. The best we can achieve is wary coexistence, careful management to reduce dangers, and keeping the way open for a better day, no matter how distant or near it may be.

Achieving even that goal requires a deeper understanding of China’s goals, fears and behavior, and how it has fallen into an old mindset that sacrifices growth to reduce vulnerability to external ideas and interference. This is not good for China, the United States or the world. It is an old default mindset; Washington needs to avoid hardening that old thinking unnecessarily.

Read the full article by SAIS FPI Senior Fellow David M. Lampton and Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Fellow Thomas Fingar in The Washington Quarterly.