US plan to suppress China ‘not realistic’

Containment policy on Beijing must be abandoned as it does Washington no good, ex-American diplomat says

The United States’ containment policy against China is not realistic and not in the US’ own interests, a China expert said, adding that Washington must return to diplomacy to address bilateral tensions.

“I don’t think at this point that (containment policy) is a very good strategy,” Susan Thornton, a former US diplomat and senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, said during a webinar earlier this month.

Under its so-called containment policy, the US has labeled China as an adversary, and tried to isolate and contain it, she said, emphasizing that the approach is not a “positive one for the US” and that it will not pay “big dividends” either.

According to Thornton, the thinking among US political elites that China can be systemically weakened is not realistic, and it is not going to leave a lot of room for bilateral talks or cooperation.

It is critically important to normalize regular official meetings between Washington and Beijing, the former US diplomat said, warning that otherwise there would be “a very dangerous escalatory security dilemma that will lead to conflict”.

“In the absence of constructive official discussions, I think it’s really important that we try to keep up other connections. This (China) is the most populous country in the world, the second-largest economy; it’s not going anywhere,” she said. “We need to figure out how we’re going to coexist with China. We’re not going to defeat them. We’re not going to overturn their government. We’re not going to invade them.”

Thornton suggested keeping people-to-people and business connections going, and attempting to find some areas in multilateral talks where the two countries can work together.

A major problem in US-China relations is the Taiwan question, she said, adding that people in the US unfortunately do not understand how provocative and threatening US actions with regard to the island are for China.

“We have to take their (China’s) concerns seriously, or we may end up in a situation that we really didn’t design and didn’t want to be in,” Thornton said.

“In the past five years, the careful management of this issue has been dropped, and we have been using it as a kind of a cudgel in the USChina relationship … I think this is extremely dangerous … for the US and China, and the rest of the world.”

Thornton said there are still many areas in multilateral forums where the US could cooperate with China. She cited the recent negotiation over a United Nations treaty on the high seas, where US and Chinese delegates worked together to get the agreement across the finish line.