The US magazine, Foreign Affairs, said that the United States alone cannot contain China's ambitions to expand its political influence and economic power around the world.

The magazine stated - in a report by Oud Arne Westad, professor of history and international relations at Yale University in the United States - that China's foreign policy today is driven by a harmful mixture of nationalism and past grievances, but it is saturated with patience and realism.

She adds that Beijing, thanks to its exceptional economic growth, has always tried to test the ability of any foreign country to stand up to its interests as formulated by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

It believes that China is a unique country in terms of its size and future potential, but it also embraces a repressive dictatorship in which a small, self-selected elite takes all important decisions, making the ruling regime a source of increasing fear by other countries.

In mid-November last year, the Policy Planning Department of the US State Department issued a report confirming that the Chinese authorities seek to review the world order from its foundations in order to serve its authoritarian goals and hegemonic ambitions.

Exploiting contradictions

According to Arne Westad, in front of this challenge, the United States has only one strategic way to stand up to Beijing's ambitions, and that is to exploit the contradictions between the two main objectives of the Chinese Communist Party, which are to maintain economic strength and implement an expansionary foreign policy.

Therefore, the administration of President-elect Joe Biden - Westad adds - will have to do more than the administrations of President Barack Obama and Donald Trump have done to help Asian countries that want to resist Chinese pressure, increase their military presence in the Indian and Pacific oceans, and set policies in the areas of trade. Investment and technology reward China if it complies with bilateral and multilateral agreements and penalizes them if it deviates from it.

The writer stresses that one of the main lessons learned from the 20th century, which is still in force today, is that the United States cannot take any of these steps without broad cooperation from its international allies and friends.

He believes that the United States' response to the Chinese genius on its own exceeds its capabilities more than it was when it faced the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

At that time, it alone had a monopoly of about 50% of global GDP and nonetheless needed the support of allies, but today it examined it less than half the percentage recorded at the time and it may decline further if the American economy is not activated.

The magazine stresses that it would also be in Washington's interest in its endeavor to contain Chinese influence to look for other opportunities for cooperation, such as trying to force Russia to organize on a larger scale with the West without refraining from criticizing Moscow's international behavior whenever necessary.

A fundamental question

The United States not only needs to have specific strategic and institutional responses to Beijing, but also - fundamentally - to reformulate the answer to the question: Why should it have a strong position in the world when other powers should have less margin of movement?

During most of the 20th century - the magazine adds - the answer to this question was clear, as America was economically, technically and militarily superior, and was ready to create international alliances and institutions through which other countries could advance their interests.

But the situation has changed today, and the matter is further complicated by the fact that the exhausted partisanship of the American political system and its inability to deal with the Corona pandemic revealed American weaknesses for everyone to see, and it has become almost impossible for many around the world to imagine American policies and institutions as a model worth emulating.

Foreign Affairs concludes that the United States can not compete effectively with China except through fundamental reforms at home that include the economy, education, health and infrastructure. Therefore, the country first needs a strong, capable and efficient government based on a political consensus, albeit limited, about the type of country that America wants to be. And without rebuilding efforts at home, any attempt to compete abroad will be futile.