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1/ VP Pence declared full-blown competition between the U.S. and China today. Much of the data is accurate-- China is engaging in increasingly worrisome behavior, has upended many longstanding assumptions. But you'll forgive me if I have some questions. hudson.org/events/1610-vi…
2/ China's economic practices have long bee prejudicial, but almost none of this relates to the bilateral trade deficit with the United States. How will a trade war help us gain long-sought market access or prevent massive IP theft?
3/ China is using its regional infrastructure investments toward coercive ends, in the form of Belt and Road, but the United States has no economic agenda for the region. How do we respond?
4/ China has been engaging in lower-level maritime coercion in the East and South China Seas for years using law enforcement and commercial vessel. This isn't a kinetic problem and a big military budget alone can't fix it.
5/ China has increased its oppression of ethnic and religious minorities. How do we promote historical American values abroad when we are imprisoning children within our own borders.
6/ For years, the Chinese government has sponsored ads in foreign newspapers in an effort to sway public opinion in foreign countries. How do we credibly counter their efforts to do so now when we have mounted no meaningful response to the 2016 attack on our democratic process?
7/ Put differently-- tough talk isn't a strategy for competition. It doesn't identify ends or the means that will be used to achieve them. In fact, both ends and means are woefully lacking.
8/ Which leads to the most important question of all: what is the objective of competition with China? What would it mean to win, and how would we measure progress? If we are serious about some form of great power competition, we'll need answers to prove it.
long "been," pardon me.
