New Truman Doctrine Needed to Break the Engagement SchoolTime to spell out our principles
By James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer
August 28, 2023
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is in the midst of several crises, including a major economic downturn, that have the potential to test the Party’s grip on power. The world has not had such an opportunity since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Yet, instead of developing a strategy to accelerate the demise of the CCP, there was the recent announcement that U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will be visiting the People’s Republic of China (PRC) ostensibly to assist the PRC’s economy from collapsing. Secretary Raymond’s visit joins a panoply of high-level Biden administration visitors to the PRC over the past three months, at the very time the CCP’s grip on power could be pried loose—and thus liberate the people of China and the rest of the world.
These recent visits started with current Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June and included the truly bizarre kowtowing visit by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and former U.S. Secretary of State, and the Biden administration’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John F. Kerry. The stated purpose of this cavalcade of visits was to re-establish “dialogue” but are instead unseemly and not appropriate for representatives of the United States. At root, they are an attempt to return to the Old Regime that governed the U.S.’s policy towards the PRC for more than a generation. This was the Kissinger School of Engagement with the PRC, and it saw no downside to the flow of cooperation, investment, and knowledge transfer to the PRC as year-after-year the PRC became stronger and the U.S., in relative terms, became weaker.
The first rule of strategy is do not help your enemy. The recognition of this alone would be sufficient to prevent the Raimondo visit. But that is the rub. The Engagement School does not perceive the CCP to be their enemy. Instead, they view the CCP as a partner in wealth creation, including the creation of their personal wealth. Thus, for the Engagers, a dollar invested in the PRC is well spent as it would provide a higher return. Unfortunately, the costs, including opportunity cost, of not investing in the U.S. was not considered.
Manifestly not considered was the odious nature of the CCP as a form of government, the Engagers did not see the CCP as a barrier to U.S. national security, but a plus. For the Engagers, the CCP’s tyranny ensured there was political stability for profits to be made and their oppression and gross human rights violations directed against the Chinese people have been and continue to be ignored. After decades of benefiting handsomely, Raimondo and many thousands who have profited are in a place to help the CCP out of its jam by lifting Trump’s trade restrictions and keeping trade and capital flowing to the PRC’s entities. Helping their CCP partners is nothing more than a return to business as usual.
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Source:
https://amgreatness.com/2023/08/28/new-truman-doctrine-needed-to-break-the-engagement-school/
