Robert Dreyfuss of the Nation:
If you've read my recent cover story for The Nation magazine, "China in the Driver's Seat," you know that I'm not a supporter of sanctioning China over its trade policy and that I think there's a troubling tendency in the United States today to blame or scapegoat China for America's ills. There is, unfortunately, a convergence of left and right on bashing China these days. On the left, criticism of China mostly revolves around allegations that China is somehow responsible for the loss of American manufacturing jobs over the past quarter-century, and that slapping harsh tariffs on China would make US-manufactured goods competitive again. On the right, the concern about China has more to do with China's emergence as a great power, complete with dire warnings from Washington think tanks, Republican politicians and neoconservative media outlets about Chinese military spending.
Now, according to the New York Times, China is becoming an issue in the 2010 election, with both Republicans and Democrats bashing Beijing in campaign ads and accusing opponents of kowtowing to the Chinese. This is dangerous nonsense, and it contains echoes—well, more than echoes of the cold war, when the "Who lost China?" debate fueled McCarthyism in the 1950s and fear of "Red China" built momentum for the war in Vietnam.
Read both of Dreyfuss's posts and he makes a compelling argument. With rising anxieties across our country, playing politics with a foreign ally can be disastrous. This reeks of the "Yellow Peril" of old, one the Nation was a party to back in the early 1900's. Suffice it to say, America needs to focus more on the 11.5 million jobs short, green initiatives and high speed rail...instead of so many efforts to "contain" China.
I am Frank Chow and I approved this message
No comments:
Post a Comment