Are neoconservatives helping China?
Nina Hachigian says that American neoconservatives are undermining U.S. policy toward China by viewing international institutions skeptically:
So while China invokes a 19th-century ideal of sovereignty to justify decisions that harm U.S. interests, some neoconservatives are championing the same antiquated notions â?? legitimizing Chinaâ??s rejection of international standards and rules.Yet the United States has benefited enormously from adopting a more modern view of sovereignty. Agreeing to a common set of trade rules means, for example, that Americans profit from exporting farm machinery and eat bananas year round.
The likelihood of a nuclear accident or terrorist incident has gone down â?? thanks to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which requires the United States and the other 190-odd signatories to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency at their nuclear facilities. Funding the International Monetary Fund pays dividends in a more stable financial system; and complying with World Health Organization requests has meant less vulnerability to deadly viruses.
It is unclear whether conservatives think these are not important benefits or that the U.S. can somehow enjoy them without, in turn, meeting its international obligations. Either way, it is a dangerous message for a rising China.
I don't agree with everything in the piece (specifically I don't think the view Hachigian decries is really 'neoconservative'), but it is worth noting that seeing as the U.S. had a major, if not decisive, role to play in shaping and creating the norms and institutions of the post World War II international order, it's definitively more favorable to the United States to have China move in that direction than to have the U.S. embrace China's view of how the world should work.
That said, China's "19th century worldview" hasn't lead the country to embark in multiple, costly military interventions around the globe, or burn its finite resources trying to "police" the globe - so maybe there's more to recommend it than Hachigian lets on.
