The US-China Rivalry Is About Capitalist Competition
Proclamations of a New Cold War between China and the US herald a clash between authoritarianism and liberal democracy. But what we’re seeing in the growing rivalry between the two countries isn’t based on ideological difference but on inter-capitalist competition.
Chinese citizens in the central business district on March 12, 2020 in Beijing, China. (Kevin Frayer / Getty Images)
Today, there is a lot of talk about a “New Cold War” between China and the United States: a Cold War between authoritarianism and liberal democracy. But we all know that China did not become authoritarian just two years ago. The whole establishment of the United States has been very happy about Chinese authoritarianism for a long time.
Just two weeks after the June 4, 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square, on June 20, President George H. W. Bush wrote a secret letter to Deng Xiaoping. The letter said that the United States was not so mad about the Communist Party sending the army to shoot its people. Bush told Deng that the United States was only a two-hundred-years-young country, and China was a five-thousand-years-old country [sic] with great contributions to world civilization, so the Chinese leaders were wise and knew what was best for the Chinese people. Bush assured Deng that Tiananmen was not going to stand in the way of the great commercial relationship between the United States and China. If there were an ideology-based Cold War between the United States and China, it should have started thirty years ago.
Rivalry
In my ongoing research, I look at the origins and dynamics of the transformation of US-China amity into rivalry by examining US corporations’ exposures to China over the last three decades. I also look at the lobbying activities of these firms on behalf of China. I discuss how these firms shaped US-China policy over the years. This is a historical materialist explanation for the changes in US-China relations. This shift was ultimately driven by a huge shift of corporate American’s disposition toward China.
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