The ongoing tussle or conflict between US and China, two leading powers, isn’t the only product of trade imbalance but the culmination of decade’s old dormant struggle for global dominance. Considering the domain of influence of both superpowers, decoding the underlying causes of US-China conflict deserves greater attention”.
Why is there acrimony between US China?
Nowadays, the war of words between leaders of US and China is a part and parcel of daily news feed. It highlights the degree of tension between these two global powers.
Let it be trade war, issue of Honkong and South China Sea, both never spare even a single chance to be critical respondent. Likewise, it is not so easy to explore the causes of US-China conflict.
To make this endeavour more convincing, I have decided to take historical perspective of relationship of US and China.
Emergence of China as a global power
Rise of China has largely been attributed to its export driven economic growth strategies, and the relative decline of US as a dominant global power in the post mortgage crisis period.
Mortgage crisis and subsequent recession was the death blow for the US economy which took years to come out of self-inflicted financial recession.
Meanwhile, constantly rising Communist power shrewdly filled the vast vaccum created by erstwhile global power US. China did so with double digit growth over three decades.
China’s giant leap and export driven growth
In the last decade only, the economy of China was tripled from 4 trillion dollars to 12 trillion. Meantime, per capita income rose around three times from 3500$ to 9000$.
Apart from this, Communist power established its global presence by pumping trillions of dollars into the resources rich nation yet economically parched across the world.
Besides, China’s progress in poverty eradication, education, infrastructure development has been fully appreciated by World Bank, and other international organization.
Surely, rise of China and relative decline of US is a cause of US-China conflict that we are witnessing today.
One China policy-appeasement by US for what?
This policy is all about the China’s sovereign stand, American acknowledgement, and Taiwan’s disillusionment over response from global community.
The origin of this policy could be traced at the beginning of era of Cold War. This is the policy by which China got the recognition of single sovereign nation from international community, after US.
It was the first attempt to soften the acrimonious relations between ideologically different powers.
Is China’s “One China Policy And Principle” A Cause Of US China Conflict ?
There were two probable implications of this policy. First, it was an encouragement for China to strengthen the territorial integrity. Here, One China principles of China is the best example of it.
Second, US was cautious about the future move of China. So, US shrewdly maintained safe distance from the assertion of China.
On occasion, US used to support though not openly, claim of Taiwan to pressurise China.
This may be a potential cause for uncomfortable relationship between US and China
In the recent times, President Trump’s aggressive stand against China is enough to prove the claim that US is not willing to compromise in favour of China anymore..
Recent Trade war and US China conflict.
Decline in the market share of United States of America in the recent decade and evolution of China as a “World Factory” added much more heat to the ongoing tension.
Second, widening trade imbalance and consequent unemployment forced US leaders to find a scapegoat to escape.
And, it was China to whom former US President Trump used to blame. It is mere a reaction of US against the global presence and influence of China and cannot be called a cause of US-China conflict.
What would be the nature of US China relationship under Baiden rule?
Considering the past experiences, let’s hope to be more fruitful but not much going to be changed in near future. Practically, both leading economies are now responsible global players and world expects a lot from them.
The peaceful, cooperative US-China relationship is definitely in the interest of global community to address much awaiting issues, such as, global coronavirus pandemic, economic recession, and global warming negotiations.
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