“My fellow Americans, tonight I want to talk to you about the great foreign-policy challenge of our time — our strategy to contend with an increasingly ambitious and bellicose China.”
If it’s hard to recall a president of the United States speaking so plainly, specifically, and forcefully to the American people on the growing threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party, it’s because you’ve never actually heard such a speech given. In his new cover story in the magazine, “The China Speech a President Should Give,” John Hillen, a former assistant secretary of state, was forced to imagine how the commander in chief should explain this greatest of challenges to his fellow citizens — since no president has yet fully addressed it.
“Over the past few decades, American strategy toward the People’s Republic of China has been all over the map, both literally and figuratively,” Hillen writes. But what if — instead — a president sat behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office to sketch “the outlines of a comprehensive new American strategy toward China.” This strategy wouldn’t simply be a “list of new policies” but rather would explain a “vision that does not seesaw between confrontation and belligerence, on the one hand, and value-neutral cooperation and accommodation on the other.”
Lest anyone think such a policy unnecessary, Hillen’s president would argue, truthfully, that “over the past few decades, but especially over the past ten years of the Xi Jinping regime, China has become more repressive, more destabilizing, more bellicose, and ever more ambitious in its stated policy of supplanting the U.S. as the leading global power.”
The entire essay is worth a read, even if none of us should hold our breath that the current administration will find the time or energy to outline such a strategy.
This competition will be military, yes, and cultural — the free world once again standing up to authoritarian communists — but it will also be economic. And in that arena, as Derek Scissors writes in his essay, “Are We Beating China Economically?” there’s already some room for confidence.
It’s true that the U.S. has some big economic problems — not least of which is the need for more high-skilled workers in key industries — but we have some major advantages over the Chinese due to our more efficient free markets. There’s also, Scissors writes, the almighty greenback: “As long as the dollar is king, the U.S. can win any international economic battle because it controls so much of the money used in international transactions.”
“Data may be the new oil,” he continues, “but money is always money. Securing the dollar’s status are American financial markets unmatched in their ability to attract participants.”
Of course, poor fiscal and monetary policy over decades has weakened our advantage: “The risk is not that the yuan will replace the dollar but rather it’s that the dollar will just fail, with nothing to replace it. There will be no reserve currency and a critical U.S. advantage will be lost.”
Again, America has real advantages in this competition. We produce three times the quantity of petroleum and biofuels that the Chinese do and import just a tenth of their total. The U.S. is, Scissors writes, “by far the world’s largest net exporter of food products.”
But will we squander our economic head start? Will an American president step up to help build a comprehensive strategy to confront and contain Communist China’s rise?
In the new issue of NR, you’ll find these questions fully thought through. Plus, you’ll find essays on a wide range of topics pertaining to our national politics, culture, and civic life.
- John McCormack, in “Cheer Up, Pro-lifers,” tells a fuller story of a year of major policy gains and minor political setbacks.
- Charlie Cooke, in “Carry, Carry, Not Contrary,” sets the record straight on the Second Amendment and the “constitutional carry” movement.
- Andrew T. Walker, in “The Georgian Way,” argues that the wisdom of Princeton professor Robert P. George should guide conservatives through rough waters.
- And Nate Hochman surveys the long counterrevolutionary road ahead in “The Long March Back.”
From Ross Douthat’s movie reviews to Rob Long on the Chinese spy balloon to the world-famous “Week” section, each new issue of National Review magazine will keep you afloat for the coming fortnight.
If you’re not already a subscriber, right now, you can sign up to a print-only subscription for just $24, or you can go in for a print-and-digital NRPlus bundle for only 52 bucks. That’s 60 percent off the cover price.
Happy reading.