Washington's China Problem

By Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi

The U.S.' confrontation with an increasingly powerful and incipiently aggressive China is getting much more complicated. There is no question of its high priority among the U.S.' foreign policy issues. But with a lame duck Obama Administration which has pursued a policy of retreat from involvement in crises areas as a solution to what it saw as U.S. over commitment, there is grave danger of a clash as a result of misperceptions by either side.

Were you a Chinese strategist attempting to measure an American opponent's intentions, the contradictory U.S. positions might well be so confusing as to be unintelligible.

On the one hand, Washington has either ignored - or some would say, encouraged - a massive trade with a deficit of $365.7 billion in 2015 in Beijing's favor, slightly up from the previous year's record $343 billion. It could well be argued, and is in some quarters, that while this arises in no small part from China's manipulation of its currency, it is a net gain for the U.S. China, a capital short economy with a relatively backward civil society, is in fact subsidizing exports to the U.S., even if that is at an American cost in lost manufacturing producing grave social and political problems with its loss of jobs.....

To Read More