America and China don’t need to knock each other out to win

COMPETITION and conflict between the United States and China have continued to intensify. On Aug 2, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan to showcase congressional support for the self-governing island, defying Chinese protests that her visit was inconsistent with the “one China” policy of the US. China responded by ringing the island with live-fire military exercises, missile tests and other operations in the Taiwan Strait.

On Oct 7, the Biden administration ordered sweeping export controls to prevent China from acquiring the most advanced semiconductors and the equipment required to manufacture them, and forbidding any American or foreign company to sell to China any such equipment that uses American technology.

These developments have perhaps not surprisingly taken place against the backdrop of growing cooperation between China and Russia over their shared belief that neither can be secure in a US-led international order. China’s rhetorical and diplomatic support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine has solidified the sense that the US must outcompete its autocratic rivals to shape the future of the international order.