Not playing
the same game...
In his column today Gideon Rachman includes a pithy quotation from a senior American official regarding ‘competition’ with China: ‘We’ve been putting a lot of points on the board’.
Well done. Too bad the Chinese don’t see it that way. Nor do many others. Rather, what they see and hear are Americans talking to themselves, as usual.
For example, Rachman quotes the Chinese foreign minister regarding the ‘guardrails’ the Americans keep offering to discuss: ‘“guardrails”… are just a way of trying to force China “not to respond . . . when slandered or attacked”.’
Another respected American China-watcher explains Chinese truculence as follows: ‘I think we’re dealing with an immature Great Power.’
The power being referred to is China, not the USA. But try finding anyone in China (or elsewhere, again) to agree with that characterisation.
Dear experts: Please stop trying to dictate the behaviour of your adversary. They won’t play your game.
There’s a simple and obvious alternative to the logic of confrontation. The subject for discussion should not be one another’s behaviour per se but the setting which both powers and their mutual neighbours share. Try making this subject the opening point for dialogue, not its end point on terms you set at the start.