The US can ban Chinese chips, but a symmetric response is deemed unfair RT World News
China bans purchases from US chipmaker
The US can somehow say this with a straight face. Washington is entitled to restrict Chinese firms on an industrial scale, but when Beijing does the same, even on a marginal level, then its evidence that China is not reliable for investment. Even as microchip firms point out the damage that disastrous policies of the US are causing, Washington seems to have either no self-awareness, or an extreme sense of self-entitlement, which, as has been discussed many times, gives it the almost divine right to impose on others rules it doesnt feel obliged to follow itself.
This is an indication of how the US sees its right to exploit Chinas own markets. American ties with China have always been conditional, on the premise that Beijing would gradually transform its political system and economy to fall in line with US preferences. In the 1980s and 1990s, during Chinas era of reform and opening up, the US believed due to its ideological overconfidence after its victory in the Cold War that China was changing and was destined to reform.
In this light, free market economics was seen as an evangelically transformative force which, with the onset of capitalism, naturally led to liberal democracy. Thus, there was never a premise of engaging China on its own terms, it always had to lead to something. By the 2010s, it became clear that this was not going to happen. Not only did Chinas political system not change, but its economic trajectory and industries continued to grow in a way which threatened the foundations of American hegemony. US foreign policy subsequently shifted to now trying to force China to change and containing it.
The US, of course, loves the idea of trade with China and its markets, as long as such trade is conducted entirely according to Washingtons preferences. That is, to have Chinas market to exploit as a subordinate to the US, and to prevent China from having its own world-leading industries. This mindset has created a visible contradiction in political rhetoric: that China must open up its markets more for Western goods, but at the same time must be locked out of Western markets in certain areas. Chinas resistance to this is decried as so-called unfair economic practices.
Sunday, May 28, 2023 at 2:45 am