We have to pay attention to U.S. policy toward China

Well before the atrocity in Atlanta, I began collecting material about the apparent bi-partisan agreement among U.S. elites that China was our Big Bad Enemy, a worthy opponent for a new Cold War. A declining empire needs a hate-object -- here we go again ...

In the Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria pointed out that the fear of an Enemy props up the military budget:

Having spent two decades fighting wars in the Middle East without much success, the Pentagon will now revert to its favorite kind of conflict, a cold war with a nuclear power. It can raise endless amounts of money to “outpace” China, even if nuclear deterrence makes it unlikely there will be an actual fighting war in Asia. Of course, there might be budget wars in Washington — but those are the battles that the Pentagon knows how to win!

My most trusted Pentagon reporter observes too many generals wallowing in warlike glee:

... there is a difference between being clear-eyed and objective about China as a national security threat and treating China as if it were Sauron from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

It does not appear that anyone in the Pentagon realizes that a conflict with China would be a total war – which the United States has not waged since 1945. The last time the U.S. military fought a war of that scale in the Pacific, it ended with the world’s first nuclear strikes. 

There are far more nuclear weapons in the world today.

The pattern is familiar. Mark Hannah was writing about Afghanistan, but everything he says could apply to U.S. policy toward China. 

Despite promises to make foreign policy serve the interests of everyday Americans, many of Washington’s decisions are circumscribed by a professional culture among policymakers that normalizes war and idealizes military might.

... The people who make foreign policy tend to be walled off from public opinion and all too eager to conform to a bipartisan consensus that favors intervention over restraint. Washington isn’t solely to blame. American voters don’t often prioritize foreign policy during election season and so don’t exert the political influence they might. ...

If we don't start paying attention,  we could find our militarized imperial state in direct conflict with a rising China. 

Ian Johnson, whose The Souls of China took us past the posturing of leaders into Chinese daily life, offers some concrete prescriptions for U.S. polices that would leave the Trump anti-Chinese offensive behind.

What’s needed are immediate low-rent measures to reverse the downward spiral in the two countries’ relations. 

One, the Biden administration should offer to restart the Peace Corps and Fulbright scholarship programs in China, two key ways that Americans have learned about the country over the past decades. The Trump administration canceled both as part of an effort to isolate China. All that accomplished instead was to hurt America’s ability to train a new generation of scholars and analysts. 

Two, in exchange for this, the U.S. government should stop vilifying China’s Confucius Institutes as sinister propaganda machines. These are largely cultural centers and much like educational outposts from other countries trying to push a good image of themselves. ... 

Three, the Biden administration should allow back into the United States some of the scores of Chinese journalists expelled by the Trump administration last year — provided that Beijing also agrees to welcome again accredited journalists from American news organizations and commits to not harassing them. 

Four, the U.S. government should lift restrictions on visas for Chinese Communist Party members wanting to travel to the United States. The policy was crafted to protect Americans from the C.C.P.’s supposedly malign influence. But the party counts some 90 million members, the majority of whom are civil servants doing normal jobs, not followers of some evil cult that needs to be kept at bay. 

Finally, China should be invited to reopen its consulate in Houston, which the Trump team closed last year in retaliation for alleged espionage. In return, the Chinese government would allow the United States to reopen its consulate in Chengdu, which Beijing had closed in retaliation.

Yes -- China's violent attempt to eradicate the Uighur ethic group's culture and religion is probably properly called genocidal. Yes -- China's destruction of Hong Kong's democratic freedoms violates treaty obligations. Yes -- China's threats against Taiwan's chosen autonomy are insupportable. This is not a nice regime.

But when our elites make China the Big Bad Enemy, they are not serving the interests of most of us. They are certainly further endangering Americans of all Asian origins -- our know-nothings will consider all Asian Americans spawn of the Enemy. 

This is a bad game. During the Trump era, progressives of necessity took our gaze off U.S. foreign policy. But the creation of a new designated Enemy isn't good for any of us.