CHINA: CONTAINMENT OR ENGAGEMENT?

TREATING CHINA AS AN ENEMY

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The Telegraph, February 24, 2012

I have just been sent a copy of Amitai Etzioni's essay "China: Making an Adversary" published in International Politics. It has been out for a while but is new to me and will not have been seen by most Telegraph readers.

As you all know, Washington (and the West) is deeply split over how to handle China's spectacular renaissance. This is by far the most important issue in 21st-century geopolitics. It is not one we can afford to get wrong, and errors made today may prove irreversible.

The new term "China hedge" has been coined, used by those who think that the country's growing economic and military might – combined with a new "truculent attitude" – is potentially so menacing that the US must rearm and reorganise its global alliance structure as an insurance policy.

These "containment" hawks cite the following reasons:
• China's defence budget grew at 12.9pc a year from 1996 to 2008, while GDP grew at 9.6pc. A State Department task force report concluded that "it is proceeding at a rate to be of concern even with the most benign interpretation of China's motivation".

(...) [artículo aquí]