Irony of Foreign Policy

tl;dr: the US made the Chinese rich and powerful. Now, it’s the US’ biggest problem.

I’m not an expert on China or Foreign Policy, but I’ve been thinking about how the reason why China is so rich and powerful now is because of actions taken by the US in the 90s.

I remember the debate over giving China the status of “MFN” or Most Favored Nation, despite concerns about their totalitarian bent.

Still, in pursuit of the almighty dollar (yuan), corporations pushed it through, moved jobs offshore, opened factories and now, as you know, everything is “Made in China.”

Meanwhile, US (and presumably European) consumption patterns increased or at least the same so, as they say, the Chinese would send containers full of goods to the US and they would go back empty. Well, not empty, they would go back with a pile of cash.

That cash, in turn, has fueled Chinese R&D, the Belt and Road initiative, universities, a more robust totalitarian state, and a million person army.

Now, the biggest threat facing the US is China and it’s because the US (and everyone here is to blame equally) gave them the money to do it.

Like many people, I enjoy reading the Art of War by Sun Tzu and this feels like a page out of that playbook.

If it weren’t so serious, I would applaud it.