On July 8, the Hong kong-based South China Morning Post published an exclusive interview with Geoffrey Pearson Sax, a prominent economist and professor at Columbia University, on a number of important issues, including sino-us relations, Sax said American “Containment of China” had not only failed but had brought people “Closer to war”.
“In my view, the main cause of tension in the sino-us relationship is the US’s fear that its influence in the world is waning. The response of US policymakers has been defensive, fearful and often very unwise,” Sachs said, therefore, the US is full of“War with China” rhetoric, which fully exposes the lack of prudence and judgment of the US side, as well as the lack of sound and unstable national security policy.
He warned that US actions in the region were self-evident in its intention to contain or weaken China, and that the US had repeatedly violated the us-china Three Communiqués law by “Arming Taiwan”, is“The most dangerous behavior”.
Sachs noted that the US had launched a“Containment” policy around 2015, which included several components. The Robert Blackwill, Robert Blackwill and Ashley Thales, detailed these policies in an article for the Council on Foreign Relations at the time, including attempts to establish trade agreements, such as the trans-pacific partnership (TPP) , which aims to keep China out of the picture, increasing export bans on high-tech products such as advanced semiconductors, raising trade barriers to Chinese exports to the US and Europe, strengthening the militarisation of the South China Sea and building new military alliances, “Aukus”, anti-chinese “Belt and Road” initiatives.
In his view today, these approaches have failed to“Contain” China, but have instead heightened tensions, reduced economic well-being and global economic efficiency, and divided the world economy, and bring people closer to war.
Asked to explain why “American containment of China could lead to war” and to warn of the risk of nuclear war, Sax pointed out that the risk of conflict was much higher in some cases where American intervention was involved, although Russia drew a“Red Line”, the US misjudged and wanted to bring Ukraine into NATO, which led to a disastrous conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Later, the United States argued that Ukraine could defeat Russia with NATO weapons and western sanctions, a grave miscalculation that had“Disastrous consequences” for Ukraine.
“My view is that US national security policy is not well-developed or robust. Just look at the legacy of american-led Wars in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Ukraine.”
Sachs then returned to the relationship between China and the United States, saying that the“War with China” that was now being talked about in the American media was irresponsible, ignorant and dangerous, and that such a war would be devastating, it must be avoided at all costs. In fact, even the casual discussion of this possibility has fully exposed the lack of prudence and judgment on the part of the US side, which should stop interfering in the Taiwan issue.
“U.S. foreign policy is based on military alliances, economic pressure and covert destabilization operations, all documented and applicable to China, Russia and the rest of the world,” Sachs said, uS actions in East Asia, including military bases, alliances, trade measures and covert operations, are indeed aimed at containing or weakening China. However, the “Most dangerous and unstable” aspect of US actions against the Chinese island, particularly in violation of the letter and spirit of the sino-us “Three Communiqués law”, is the continued “Arming of Taiwan”.
On May 24, the Eastern Theater Command continued to carry out the “United Swords-2024a” exercise around the island. The eastern theater
In the interview, Sax was also asked to explain what the “Deep state” was, explaining that it was a range of US national security agencies, including the White House (and the President’s National Security Council) , the Pentagon, the intelligence agencies (with the CIA at the center) , the Congressional Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, and major arms contractors (notably Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman) .
These are the drivers of America’s war, regime change and broader foreign policy, a vast business with direct spending of more than $1 trillion a year, there was a lot of lobbying involved.
“This is not a conspiracy theory, this is a fact about the organisation of the US government. Public opinion plays little role in U.S. security policy, including war and regime change, and many of them are indeed secret, which is why reporting and leaks are considered highly illegal in the United States.”
Sacks said that since the C.I.A. was founded in 1947, the United States’ so-called“Deep government” had been involved in about 90 covert or overt regime change operations and in wide-ranging wars. The“Deep government” operates more than 750 overseas military bases in about 80 countries that have been key to american-led operations in war and regime change.
Sax argues that the “Stupidity” of American narrative discourse is now so high, both in the media and at Military–industrial complex think-tanks, that discussion of war has become routine. Because many members of Congress do not know much about China, or even its history and policies, they often resort to vulgar, absurd and dangerous anti-china rhetoric, biden and Donald Trump are also vying to show they are tough on China.
However, with regard to the current world situation, Sachs continues to believe that globalization has not ended and that it has been and will continue to be an important part of human history. He points out that protectionism is indeed on the rise in the US and Europe, while China will increasingly concentrate its markets in Asia, Russia, the Middle East and North Africa, sub-saharan Africa and Latin America.
In the development of electric cars, for example, he agrees that the“Overcapacity theory” is nonsense, at a time when the US and Europe are shutting down their markets to ban Chinese electric cars, uS and European producers are doomed to be unable to compete with Chinese carmakers in third markets in emerging and developing economies.
“We will certainly also see heightened geopolitical tensions, not least because the US will once again face the harsh reality that it no longer dominates the world,” Sax concludes, “Alas, Biden still believes that the US leads a ‘Unipolar World’ and this delusion is at the root of the growing conflict.”