US-China Relations Updates

On April 27, Jack Sullivan’s speech at the Brookings Institution can be summarized as a deep reflection on US industrial policy and how China is forcing Washington to reform. As the author of the Long Telegram, George Kennan, once said, the US competition with the Soviet Union was about how the US could improve itself and increase its competitiveness; today, in Sullivan’s speech, we see something similar. Sullivan first rejected the small government neoliberal policies that the US had implemented in the 30 years since the end of the Cold War, while praising the economic policies being implemented in China. He then listed the four major challenges facing the US as it seeks to redefine its economic industries.

Mr Sullivan listed 4 challenges the Biden administration is facing：

1）Too rely on Market adjustment， and thought all growth is good， didn’t notice some critical sectors may need to pay more attention

2）Adapting to a new environment defined by geopolitical and security competition with important economic impact, China subsidise massively in some industries.

3) Accelerating climate crisis and urgent need for a just and efficient clean energy transition

4) Face the challenge of inequality and its damage to democracy

And the solution will be:

1. Laying foundation at home with a modern American industrial strategy: identifies specific sectors that are foundational to economic growth strategic from a national security perspective and where private industry on its own isn’t poised to make the investments needed to secure our national ambitions. It deploys targeted public investment in these areas that unlock the power and ingenuity of private markets capitalism and competition to lay a foundation for long term growth.
2. Working with US partners to ensure they are building capacity resilience and inclusiveness too;
3. Moving from traditional trade deals to new international economic partnerships focused on the core challenges of our time
4. Mobilising trillions of dollars in investment into emerging economies with solutions that those countries are fashioning on their own but with capital that is enabled by a different brand of US deplomecy.

If you look at above solutions, it’s very clear that Sullivan is try to make reform on existing US international policy and learn from China’s Industrial policy, for example “Made in China 2025” and government subsidise in certain industries！

Abandoning one’s own expertise in liberal democracy to use the Chinese model in which one lacks expertise to deal with China is truly a great idea. Regardless of whether it succeeds or not, I ask you, Sullivan, can you achieve centralisation of power and party leadership over guns?