Commentary
The path of wrong steps taken on the China road is a long one. The motivations behind those wrong steps have included expediency, ideology, greed, and naivete. Here are some of those missteps.
The Dixie Mission
In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt established a U.S. Army Observation Group at Ya’an for liaison purposes with Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). President Roosevelt maintained a false notion that the Nationalists and Communists could reconcile their differences after World War II.The mission sowed uncertainty in the Nationalist Chinese government, as it appeared that the United States was hedging its bets on a post-war Chinese government. Clear support for an anti-communist government should have been the crystal clear U.S.-China policy.
The Nixon Doctrine
In 1969, President Richard Nixon announced that “the United States will expect its Asian allies to tend to their own military defense.” While largely intended to “Vietnamize” the ongoing Vietnam War, for Taiwan, the policy meant a cessation of U.S. Navy patrols in the Taiwan Strait. In retrospect, this laid the groundwork for his and Henry Kissinger’s trip to Shanghai that “opened China” in 1972.The Shanghai Communique
The Shanghai Communique was promulgated by the Nixon administration in February 1972 after meeting with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai to “open China” to the world. The communique also contained these fateful words, which have led to the present-day tensions in the Taiwan Strait as the PLA Navy intimidates Taiwan: “The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position.”Second Communique
Promulgated by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, this “second communique” contained this naive assumption of diplomatic relations between the United States and China: “Normalization—and the expanded commercial and cultural relations that it will bring—will contribute to the well-being of our own Nation, to our own national interest, and it will also enhance the stability of Asia.”In fact, normalization of relations with communist China has done the opposite, as China is now defined as the greatest long-term threat to the United States.
Third Communique
This “third communique” was issued in August 1982 by the Reagan administration. It was a gift to communist China, which had sought to eliminate U.S. arms exports to Taiwan since 1949. Undercutting the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, it contained more fateful words for Taiwan: “The United States Government states that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan ... and that it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution.”This was a terrible error as the PLA’s threats of a cross-strait invasion of Taiwan have dramatically escalated over the past several years. If anything, arms sales to Taiwan should have accelerated from the 1980s onward as a deterrent to the PLA.
China Admitted to the WTO and GATT
China was admitted to the World Trade Organization—the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)—in November 2001. Joining the WTO allowed China to achieve “most favored nation (MFN) status,” which provides all WTO members with the best trade terms given by its trading partners, including the lowest tariffs, the fewest trade barriers, and the highest import quotas (if any).
While accruing these benefits of WTO membership, China has since abrogated the terms of its Protocol of Accession in the areas of transparency, uniform application of laws, a reduction in its mercantilist practices through government subsidies, and other commitments made in 2001.
Concluding Thoughts
The United States and its allies have taken several wrong steps over the years concerning communist China. The above missteps were primarily based on altruistic but highly flawed diplomacy—the notion that “direct engagement with China” would ameliorate Chinese belligerence and predatory economic practices over time as the communists reaped the benefits of normal trade relations with the rest of the world.It hasn’t worked out that way, as the communists have exploited international institutions to capture U.S. manufacturing and critical supply chains that have resulted in massive trade surpluses for China that fuel the growth and modernization of the PLA, as well as the expansion around the world of the spiderweb that is Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
An obscure song resonates with those who believe gross errors of the past have led the human race into a cul-de-sac. The English space rock band Hawkwind recorded “We Took the Wrong Step Years Ago“ in 1971, which predicted a disaster for mankind brought about by unspecified past mistakes. Even the title makes one think that human history is fraught with errors and mistakes that resulted in manmade catastrophes and wars. The lyrics are apocalyptic:
I think about the things that we should have done before And the way things are going to end is about to fall We took the wrong step years ago
Look around and see the warnings close at hand Already weeds are writing their scriptures in the sand We took the wrong step years ago
The morning Sun is rising casting rays across the land Already nature’s calling take heed of the warning We took the wrong step years ago
Pick a topic—any topic—of great importance these days, and that Hawkwind song can be directly applied. Take communist China, for example. Consider all of the past mistakes that have been made that have created the largest scourge in human history—the wrong steps consciously taken by “smart people” at the time.Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
