The western world is now more concerned about Russia. Nothing unusual, since there is the War in Ukraine. But in the meantime, China is moving discreetly to conquer economic and military hegemony.
It’s time to clip the wings of the Chinese, according to political scientist Aaron Friedberg of Princeton University. He has now published “Getting China Wrong” in June, also the title of the podcast he recorded for the university where he teaches.
Frieberg argues that the United States and Europe were seduced by a false opening by the Asian giant. Let us remember that Deng Xiaoping (1978-1992) created a dynamic industrial and technological model that took his country to the WTO (World Trade Organization). At the same time, however, the Communist Party put into practice the project of surpassing American production and defining, in Asia, a military power superior to that of NATO, a military alliance led by the Americans.
If the West continues to clap its hands for the Chinese, they will walk smoothly towards the achievement of an even greater position of international leadership. But Westerners can also block ascent — that’s what Friedberg carefully proposes.
He didactically mention four reactions that would put the West back in a position of comfort. It would be necessary, first of all, to recognize as fanciful the beliefs that China was changing. For example, the idea that the market economy would lead to the emergence of a middle class that would claim political power, which would break with the communist monopoly, was mistaken.
Instead, the one-party regime used digital technology to further control individuals — on social media and in the scoring system that reserves university access only to the “well behaved.” At the same time, it emptied out NGOs studying human rights and limited partnerships with foreign capital.
A second reaction would be to oppose the military machine that China has been putting together to confront the US and NATO. This complex set of aircraft carriers, aircraft and missiles became largely viable from the technological flights to which the local industry took off so clearly.
The third set of measures is more complicated. The West needs to redefine its trade relations with China, preventing it from importing goods with greater added technology and proceeding to build a network of partners with which it creates ties of dependence, precisely by outsourcing the technology that Westerners provide it.
Finally, says Friedberg, the Chinese government is engaged in a still discreet ideological war that seeks to disqualify Western democracies, defining them as slow and less efficient than countries with centralized and authoritarian power. “We must enter this ideological war to defend ourselves and demonstrate all the advantages of political pluralism”, says the researcher.
In more immediate terms, China has its eye on the West and interprets its reactions in the event of a forcible retake of Taiwan. On the one hand, Beijing’s strategists accompany Russia in Ukraine and study its military deficiencies so as not to commit them, if any.
On the other hand, the regime analyzes whether Westerners preserve a minimum of diplomatic unity when criticizing Russia. If it breaks down — for example, due to the energy market — the green light is being given so that Taiwan can tragically enter the game.
This is not the only relationship to China that Aaron Friedberg sees in the Ukraine War. He describes as symptomatic the deafness shown by Beijing when Westerners asked to pressure Vladimir Putin not to embark on the current adventure. And yet: the Chinese regime has not adhered to the criticisms and sanctions that the West has imposed on Moscow; an uncritical stance towards the ally prevailed.
Friedberg’s book and podcast have an obvious advantage for anyone who sees the world from this corner called Brazil. China always has the privilege of a certain romanticization, no matter which direction it comes from. The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s seduced a reasonable portion of the Brazilian left; After half a century, admiration changed places and took over the business, fascinated by the high growth rates and the leadership that China was trying to assume in some sectors.
What Friedberg directly produces is a kind of warning. China is a rabid beast. If it wakes up, it also bites.
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