Desk Report,
Is Trump’s ‘Great’ America becoming ‘pro-China’?
Many Americans once believed that if China participated in the global trading system created by the United States, they would gradually become like the United States.
Is Trump’s ‘Great’ America becoming ‘pro-China’?
President Bill Clinton once said that China might one day become a democratic state. For many Americans like him, it seemed that the final victory of the US-led ‘neoliberal’ system was not far off.
Clinton and others were not entirely wrong at the time. China has indeed been following some key aspects of the American system for many years.
They have followed in the footsteps of the United States on these issues: business entrepreneurship, a culture of consumerism, and integration into the global market.
As a result, China has become a huge industrial power. A large middle class has been created there. China is now very advanced in science and technology. And Chinese companies like Huawei, Lenovo, and Alibaba are now known brands around the world.
China’s 1.4 billion people now live a much more diverse and prosperous life than ever before.
Along this entire path, China has repeatedly followed the United States. But what neither the Americans nor the Chinese—basically no one—imagined was that not only did China follow the United States, but the United States also consciously or subconsciously followed many of China’s policies.
Today, when the competition for influence and ideology is going on between the United States and China, it seems that the pendulum is now swinging in the opposite direction.
Donald Trump’s return to power has made this even clearer. It seems that the United States is now behaving like China in many important areas. For example, the erosion of democracy, strict border policies and nationalism, suppression of freedom of expression, etc.
In other words, while there was once a dream of making China like the United States, now in reality it is becoming like China in some areas.
