中文
By Hamzah Rifaat Hussain
Evidence suggests that the Biden administration's regressive China policy will harm its international credibility. Despite assurances Washington is abiding by the principles of mutual respect, U.S. foreign policy continues to ignore the root cause of tensions over the Taiwan Straits, while seeking to expand NATO into the Asia Pacific and building Cold War-like alliances as mentioned by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat.
The Biden administration keeps pursuing a myopic China policy that will backfire. There remains a disconnect between what is being practiced as foreign policy and what is relayed as cosmetic goodwill gestures by Washington when continuing on with its pursuit of tinkering with regional dynamics in the Asia Pacific while reneging on its prior commitments to uphold the one-China principle. The United States is failing to uphold its long-cherished principles, norms and collective wisdom.
The U.S. has demonstrated a shocking lack of strategic wisdom on China or the Asia Pacific region. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a policy speech at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta that the roots of current tensions in the Taiwan Straits lie solely with the Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei abandoning the 1992 consensus, which created a diplomatic basis for cross-strait exchanges and acts as a prerequisite for China to engage in cross-strait dialogue.
Yet the U.S. continues to distort facts despite cosmetic assurances relayed at the Bali meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Working in cohorts with the DPP as a disruptive force constitutes state-sponsored intervention and violation of the joint understandings between the U.S. and China. A continuance, will only further damage America's credibility.
The alarming disconnects between what is claimed and what is practiced have also become more evident in regards to its NATO expansion policy. Senior policy adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Derek Chollet claimed that the recent attendance of Asia Pacific leaders at the NATO summit in Madrid is a consequential shift in Washington's transatlantic security partnership, which the U.S. seeks to expand by countering Beijing.
Given that no calls were given by the Biden administration over not expanding NATO or deescalating to promote meaningful exchanges between the two countries, it can be safely assumed that the strategic concept notes, Cold War-like alliances, laws and institutions remain firmly in place to mold strategic environments around China. If this continues, then American diplomacy in the Asia Pacific will remain a failure of epic proportions.
To salvage its declining global reputation America's domestic political considerations should not outweigh its calls for peace. Meanwhile, U.S. Congress has stood persistent in passing anti-China legislation such as the Strategic Competition Act with an annual amount worth $300 million dedicated solely to the 'Countering China Influence Fund.'
On the foreign policy front, Washington's drive remains military-centric, heavily securitized and threat perceptions based on fears over China's global policies are not controversial. The financial institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, have adopted inclusive approaches for global development, while 130 countries out of 193 countries have more trade with China than the U.S. Accordingly, promoting China as a security threat is deeply flawed.
Take Hong Kong for example. The U.S. has often censured Beijing over the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Public sentiment, however, reveals otherwise.
Close to 76.2 percent of Hong Kong's residents believe that the freedom granted under the Basic Law has stayed unaffected, since its implementation while a further 63 percent believe that the law has improved the business climate for the Specially Administered Region. Based on statistics alone, the rhetoric and policy coming from Washington can be punctured as negative and lopsided coverage.
Yet defending an indefensible foreign policy has dented America's international standing. The Biden administration should shelve controversial doctrines for good as its credibility on the world stage as a promoter of peace, dialogue and de-escalation is at stake.
Hamzah Rifaat Hussain, a former visiting fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and former assistant researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, is a TV anchor at Indus News in Pakistan.
