The man expected to be China's leader for the next 10 years, Xi Jinping, arrived in the United States on Monday, Feb. 13. This will be an excellent occasion for Americans to assess him and take stock of the relationship with the rising power of the 21st century. Needless to say, there are complex and polarizing reactions toward China in the United States: The racially tinged advertisement by Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra depicting a happy, young Chinese woman speaking broken English as she celebrates American decline is but the most recent example of an attempt to manipulate Americans' emotions rather than activate their brains.
The American narrative about China sees a rising, highly disciplined nation under a dictatorial and directed leadership with a strategic vision of regional -- if not global -- dominance. This may sound dark, but it's actually an attractive narrative for some. For the U.S. military, China provides a mobilizing enemy to fuel military spending, strategic doctrine, and new weapons systems. For some corporations and labor leaders, the notion that America can't compete with a China that cheats is a pretext for protectionism and tax breaks. For those who lament the state of the U.S. economy and the dysfunctional U.S. political system, China's success provides a useful challenge, like Sputnik in the 1950s. To neoconservatives and foreign-policy hawks who see the international arena as a Hobbesian world in which America dominates or is dominated, China provides the obvious threat to U.S. preeminence. To democracy promoters and human rights campaigners, China is the embodiment of what most needs fixing in the world. And to believers in the inevitability of American decline, China represents the 800-pound gorilla that the United States needs to accommodate sooner rather than later by shrinking its regional presence, drawing back to its own shores, and reducing unproductive alliances.
But let's take a deep breath and look at the real China that America faces.
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