Now, after having trying without any success, I now try to point out the consequences of the confrontational and finger-pointing approach of this U.S.-China relationship. Instead of leading to benefits for the U.S. govervement and the American people, it leads to economic and political setbacks for the U.S., it makes the U.S. being unable to partipate in many key economic areas, such as electric-based vehicles. Although the U.S. may not always be taking the lead in certain industries, it should seriously look at the competitive world, and decide what is the best approach that will lead to the most benefits for the American people. Instead of imagining threats from China, then impose uncalled-for sanctions against China that will lead to disastrous consequences for the U.S. and the American people. The U.S. should realistically assess the security threats from China, and decide whether these security threats are real or imaginary. Doing so could lead to a very different perspective on U.S.-China relationship.
Major Issue and Need Change of Mindset
In the last issue [Ref.1], I mentioned that I always thought for a long time that the best approach to U.S.-China Relationship is for the U.S. and China as the world’s most important countries to work collaboratively to address the many critical problems facing the world, problems like poverty, diseases, unemployment, lack of education, disarmament, climate change, and nuclear arms race. Unfortunately, instead of living together to try to improve the world, the U.S. is creating confrontations and adopting a foreign policy toward China that is so antagonistic that can easily escalate into wars.
Let’s look at some of the key issues in the U.S.-China relationship, such as South China Sea, Taiwan, and Xinjiang.
South China Sea Issue
We will first consider the South China Sea issue. A major partner/ally of the U.S. in the South China Sea is the Philippines government. A brief history of the Philippines can be found in Ref. 2. Phillipines was a Spanish colony and takes its name from Philip II, who was king of Spain during the Spanish colonization of the islands in the 16th century, and was under Spanish rule for 333 years and then became a colony of the U.S. for another 48 years from 1899 to 1946 [Ref. 3]. The Philippines government actually has no legal jurisdiction on any of the contested areas in the South China Sea.
On the other hand, China claims sovereignty over the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands (the two major islands in the South China Sea) dating back at least several hundred years, and Chinese fishermen have also been fishing around these islands for also hundreds of years. See, e.g., Ref. 4 for Chinese exploration of the South China Sea areas, as well as many other areas of the world. These islands have been marked as part of China in various maps. For example, even textbooks approved by the Indonesian government in the 1940s and 1950s recognized these islands as belonging to China. In 1946 after WWII ended and Japan returned Taiwan to China, China sent four military ships, accompanied by an American naval ship, to Taiping Island (the largest island of the Spratly Islands, also known as Itu Aba Island) and several other islands in the South China Sea to take back the control of these islands from Japan. The Philippines has also deliberately grounded (since 1999) a Philippine naval ship (actually a former U.S. naval vessel) called the Sierra Madre (on a “disputed” island between the Philappines and China in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. This tries to add credence to Philippine’s claim to these South China Sea islands.
The U.S. is also conducting joint military operation practices with countries such as Philippines, Japan, and Australia, all while openly criticizing the legal actions of land reclamation of islands under China’s sovereignty. Similar land reclamation activities have also been done by Vietnam. The U.S. has also complained about China setting up an oil exploration rig near one of her islands, but the U.S. has never said anything negative about similar, earlier, and larger-scale actions by Vietnam who has been extracting oil from various oil rigs and making millions of dollars every year. Furthermore, in 1956, North Vietnam had also declared that the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands are historically Chinese territory.
It is clear that the U.S. is not playing fairly in the so-called South China Sea dispute. Although the U.S. has no role to play in this area, it has for no good reason at all obviously thrown its support to so-called allies like the Philippines, Vietnam, and even Japan who caused so much pain and suffering to the people all over the world during WWII, especially including launching the unwarranted aerial attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Taiwan Issue
Now we discuss the issue of Taiwan. In a sense, this issue is really trivial if you follow the history of China and the U.S.-relationship with respect to Taiwan, but in reality, because the U.S. is not acknowledging history and wants to rewrite history, this issue could trigger the next world war and another nuclear war.
Historically, Taiwan has been a part of China for many centuries and universally so recognized by the world. The island of Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Japan won the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. After WWII ended, Japan was supposed to relinquish all territories in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa (another name for Taiwan), and the Pescadores (a group of small islands just off the western coast ot Taiwan), shall be restored to the Republic of China. This agreement was clearly stated in several major international declarations.
The 1943 Cairo Declaration [5]:
In particular, it was so stated in the November 26, 1943 Cairo Declaration by President Franklin Roosevelt of the U.S., Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China. The declaration developed ideas from the 1941 Atlantic Charter, which was issued by the Allies of WWII to set goals for the post-war order. The Cairo Declaration also stated that following the war, Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores Islands would be returned to China.
The 1945 Potsdam Declaration [6]:
On July 26, 1945, the Allied Powers represented by President Franklin Roosevelt of the U.S., Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China issued the Potsdam Declaration that offered an unconditional surrender of Japan to WWII and reiterated the 1943 Cairo Declaration that all territories that Japan seized or occupied from the Chinese, including the island of Taiwan, should be returned to China.
The 1945 Japanese Instrument of Surrender [7]:
On September 2, 1945, representatives from the Japanese government and Allied forces aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, which ended World War II and also reiterated the Potsdam Declaration that the island of Taiwan should be returned to China.
Xinjiang Issue
Now we discuss the issue of Xinjiang. For several years, the U.S. has made many negative remarks on Xinjiang with respect to China’s treatment of the Uyghurs minority and imposed many sanctions on Chinese products from Xinjiang. Recently the UN has released a report by the UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan on 5/17/2024 [Ref. 9] that “states should lift sanctions against China and also take strong action to curb sanction over-compliance by businesses and other actors under their jurisdistion. She also emphasized that “decline in business activities and the significant loss of global markets either due to unilateral sanctions per se or due to over-compliance with such measures by foreign businesses and entities have led to job losses with consequent disruptions in social protection schemes, by disproportionatly affecting the most vulnerable, particularly in labour-intensive sectors, including women, older persons, and all those in informal employment.” The U.N. Special Rapporteur is warning that such unitateral sanctions can do irreparable harms to many people and companies.
There have been numerous commentaries by very knowledgeable foreigners [Refs 11-13] who have lived and worked in China for many years criticizing the U.S. sanctions against Xinjiang and who have voiced opinions similar to the comments of the UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan. The UN Special Rappoteur Dunhan will present her Xinjiang report to the Human Rights Council of the UN in September 2024.
Conclusion and New Perspective on U.S.-China Relationship
The issues that we have discussed in this artilce, whether it is the South China Sea issue, the Taiwan issue, or the Xinjiang issue are also so much intertwined with the internal politics of the U.S. because both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have adopted in the past 5-10 years such discrminatory practices against China. It is time for them to see the world in a new light that such policies are wrong, and do great harms to the econimic and political benefits of the U.S. government and the American people.
If the U.S. government and the American people can acknowledge and make this major mental change, i.e., the U.S. does not always have to be the single dominant player in a unipolar world, but one of the major players in a multipolar world, then the U.S. can become a major player economically and politically. It can still become a major player in many markets, including the electric vehicle market. At the same time, it is also contributing to what the world needs from a global environmental perspective.
These issues are also so much intertwined with the internal politics of the U.S. because both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have adopted in the last few years such discrminatory practices against China. It is time for them to see the world in a new light that such policies are wrong, and do great harms to the econimic and political benefits of the U.S. government and the American people. It is urgent that the American government and people can change this perspective on China, because the trajectory of the U.S.-China relationship leads directly to conflicts, wars, and more and more instabilities in all parts of the world, while the world needs to work together to address these problems. At the same time, the world is also facing more and more enviromental problems that without a concerted effort by the world working together to solve these problems, it may be too late to save the world from this sinking ship and save humanity.
If the U.S. government and the American people can acknowledge and make this major mental change, it can regain its important role as a vital player economically and politically. It can still become a major player in many markets, including the electric vehicle market. At the same time, it is also contributing to what the world needs from an environmental perspective.
—————————————–
References
[1] D. M. Tow, “A New Post on U.S.- China Relationship (June 2024): https://www.dontow.com/2024/06/a-new-post-on-u-s-china-relationship/
[2] See, e.g., “History of the Philippines,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Philippines.
[3] See, e.g., “The Philippines: Facts and History,” https://www.thoughtco.com/the-philippines-facts-and-history-195655, including the Philiappino-American war that ended when Spain ceded the archipelago islands of the Philippines to the U.S. in the 1898 Treaty of Paris.
[4] The famous Chinese navigator Zheng He and his large fleet of ships sailed all over Asia and many other parts of the world between 1405 and 1433 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), sailing through the South China Sea many times on their way to India, Africa, and other places. See, e.g., Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas, Open Road Distribution, 2014.
[5] See, e.g., “The 1943 Cairo Declaration“: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_Cairo_Declaration.
[6] See, e.g., “The Potsdam Declaration”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declaration.
[7] See, e.g., “September 2, 1945 Japanese Instrument of Surrender”: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/surrender-of-japan
[8] See, e.g., National Archives, Surrender of Japan (1945): https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/surrender-of-japan
[9] “China: UN expert says unilateral sanctions must not be used as foreign policy tool and means of economic coercion,” UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan, May 17, 2024: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/05/china-un-expert-says-unilateral-sanctions-must-not-be-used-foreign-policy. The Special Rapporteur will present her Xinjiang visit report to the Human Rights Council of the UN in September 2024.
[10] Numerous commentaries by very knowledgeable foreigners who have lived and worked in China for many years have criticized the U.S. sanctions against Xinjiang and who have voiced opinions similar to the comments of the UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan. See, e.g., Refs 11-13.
[11] Jerry Grey and his wife Ann, who have lived and worked in China during the last 20 years, including visiting Xinjiang several times and who have cycled across China including Xinjiang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jlUy2DR8TQ.
[12] An interview by Cyrus Janssen with Fernando Munoz Bernal and Noel Lee who visited Xinjiang in 2021 in “What It’s Really Like to Travel to Xinjiang, China?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8qnr8DXZOc. Cyrus Janssen is an American businessman who has lived and worked in China for about 10 years, and has gone back and visited China several times. Fernando Munez Bernal from Columbia (sometimes under the heading “Alex from Reporterly Media & Travel” has also other video broadcasts of his travels in many parts of China.
[13] Daniel Dumbrill, a Canadian businessman who has lived in China for many years and visited Xinjiang in 2021 in “Xinjiang Genocide: An Except from the ‘Genocide’ Panel”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-0l_zToN4. He has also many video broadcasts of his visits to China, which you can find in the web.
A New Perspective on U.S.-China Relationship
Now, after having trying without any success, I now try to point out the consequences of the confrontational and finger-pointing approach of this U.S.-China relationship. Instead of leading to benefits for the U.S. govervement and the American people, it leads to economic and political setbacks for the U.S., it makes the U.S. being unable to partipate in many key economic areas, such as electric-based vehicles. Although the U.S. may not always be taking the lead in certain industries, it should seriously look at the competitive world, and decide what is the best approach that will lead to the most benefits for the American people. Instead of imagining threats from China, then impose uncalled-for sanctions against China that will lead to disastrous consequences for the U.S. and the American people. The U.S. should realistically assess the security threats from China, and decide whether these security threats are real or imaginary. Doing so could lead to a very different perspective on U.S.-China relationship.
Major Issue and Need Change of Mindset
In the last issue [Ref.1], I mentioned that I always thought for a long time that the best approach to U.S.-China Relationship is for the U.S. and China as the world’s most important countries to work collaboratively to address the many critical problems facing the world, problems like poverty, diseases, unemployment, lack of education, disarmament, climate change, and nuclear arms race. Unfortunately, instead of living together to try to improve the world, the U.S. is creating confrontations and adopting a foreign policy toward China that is so antagonistic that can easily escalate into wars.
Let’s look at some of the key issues in the U.S.-China relationship, such as South China Sea, Taiwan, and Xinjiang.
South China Sea Issue
We will first consider the South China Sea issue. A major partner/ally of the U.S. in the South China Sea is the Philippines government. A brief history of the Philippines can be found in Ref. 2. Phillipines was a Spanish colony and takes its name from Philip II, who was king of Spain during the Spanish colonization of the islands in the 16th century, and was under Spanish rule for 333 years and then became a colony of the U.S. for another 48 years from 1899 to 1946 [Ref. 3]. The Philippines government actually has no legal jurisdiction on any of the contested areas in the South China Sea.
On the other hand, China claims sovereignty over the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands (the two major islands in the South China Sea) dating back at least several hundred years, and Chinese fishermen have also been fishing around these islands for also hundreds of years. See, e.g., Ref. 4 for Chinese exploration of the South China Sea areas, as well as many other areas of the world. These islands have been marked as part of China in various maps. For example, even textbooks approved by the Indonesian government in the 1940s and 1950s recognized these islands as belonging to China. In 1946 after WWII ended and Japan returned Taiwan to China, China sent four military ships, accompanied by an American naval ship, to Taiping Island (the largest island of the Spratly Islands, also known as Itu Aba Island) and several other islands in the South China Sea to take back the control of these islands from Japan. The Philippines has also deliberately grounded (since 1999) a Philippine naval ship (actually a former U.S. naval vessel) called the Sierra Madre (on a “disputed” island between the Philappines and China in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. This tries to add credence to Philippine’s claim to these South China Sea islands.
The U.S. is also conducting joint military operation practices with countries such as Philippines, Japan, and Australia, all while openly criticizing the legal actions of land reclamation of islands under China’s sovereignty. Similar land reclamation activities have also been done by Vietnam. The U.S. has also complained about China setting up an oil exploration rig near one of her islands, but the U.S. has never said anything negative about similar, earlier, and larger-scale actions by Vietnam who has been extracting oil from various oil rigs and making millions of dollars every year. Furthermore, in 1956, North Vietnam had also declared that the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands are historically Chinese territory.
It is clear that the U.S. is not playing fairly in the so-called South China Sea dispute. Although the U.S. has no role to play in this area, it has for no good reason at all obviously thrown its support to so-called allies like the Philippines, Vietnam, and even Japan who caused so much pain and suffering to the people all over the world during WWII, especially including launching the unwarranted aerial attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Taiwan Issue
Now we discuss the issue of Taiwan. In a sense, this issue is really trivial if you follow the history of China and the U.S.-relationship with respect to Taiwan, but in reality, because the U.S. is not acknowledging history and wants to rewrite history, this issue could trigger the next world war and another nuclear war.
Historically, Taiwan has been a part of China for many centuries and universally so recognized by the world. The island of Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Japan won the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. After WWII ended, Japan was supposed to relinquish all territories in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa (another name for Taiwan), and the Pescadores (a group of small islands just off the western coast ot Taiwan), shall be restored to the Republic of China. This agreement was clearly stated in several major international declarations.
The 1943 Cairo Declaration [5]:
In particular, it was so stated in the November 26, 1943 Cairo Declaration by President Franklin Roosevelt of the U.S., Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China. The declaration developed ideas from the 1941 Atlantic Charter, which was issued by the Allies of WWII to set goals for the post-war order. The Cairo Declaration also stated that following the war, Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores Islands would be returned to China.
The 1945 Potsdam Declaration [6]:
On July 26, 1945, the Allied Powers represented by President Franklin Roosevelt of the U.S., Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China issued the Potsdam Declaration that offered an unconditional surrender of Japan to WWII and reiterated the 1943 Cairo Declaration that all territories that Japan seized or occupied from the Chinese, including the island of Taiwan, should be returned to China.
The 1945 Japanese Instrument of Surrender [7]:
On September 2, 1945, representatives from the Japanese government and Allied forces aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, which ended World War II and also reiterated the Potsdam Declaration that the island of Taiwan should be returned to China.
Xinjiang Issue
Now we discuss the issue of Xinjiang. For several years, the U.S. has made many negative remarks on Xinjiang with respect to China’s treatment of the Uyghurs minority and imposed many sanctions on Chinese products from Xinjiang. Recently the UN has released a report by the UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan on 5/17/2024 [Ref. 9] that “states should lift sanctions against China and also take strong action to curb sanction over-compliance by businesses and other actors under their jurisdistion. She also emphasized that “decline in business activities and the significant loss of global markets either due to unilateral sanctions per se or due to over-compliance with such measures by foreign businesses and entities have led to job losses with consequent disruptions in social protection schemes, by disproportionatly affecting the most vulnerable, particularly in labour-intensive sectors, including women, older persons, and all those in informal employment.” The U.N. Special Rapporteur is warning that such unitateral sanctions can do irreparable harms to many people and companies.
There have been numerous commentaries by very knowledgeable foreigners [Refs 11-13] who have lived and worked in China for many years criticizing the U.S. sanctions against Xinjiang and who have voiced opinions similar to the comments of the UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan. The UN Special Rappoteur Dunhan will present her Xinjiang report to the Human Rights Council of the UN in September 2024.
Conclusion and New Perspective on U.S.-China Relationship
The issues that we have discussed in this artilce, whether it is the South China Sea issue, the Taiwan issue, or the Xinjiang issue are also so much intertwined with the internal politics of the U.S. because both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have adopted in the past 5-10 years such discrminatory practices against China. It is time for them to see the world in a new light that such policies are wrong, and do great harms to the econimic and political benefits of the U.S. government and the American people.
If the U.S. government and the American people can acknowledge and make this major mental change, i.e., the U.S. does not always have to be the single dominant player in a unipolar world, but one of the major players in a multipolar world, then the U.S. can become a major player economically and politically. It can still become a major player in many markets, including the electric vehicle market. At the same time, it is also contributing to what the world needs from a global environmental perspective.
These issues are also so much intertwined with the internal politics of the U.S. because both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have adopted in the last few years such discrminatory practices against China. It is time for them to see the world in a new light that such policies are wrong, and do great harms to the econimic and political benefits of the U.S. government and the American people. It is urgent that the American government and people can change this perspective on China, because the trajectory of the U.S.-China relationship leads directly to conflicts, wars, and more and more instabilities in all parts of the world, while the world needs to work together to address these problems. At the same time, the world is also facing more and more enviromental problems that without a concerted effort by the world working together to solve these problems, it may be too late to save the world from this sinking ship and save humanity.
If the U.S. government and the American people can acknowledge and make this major mental change, it can regain its important role as a vital player economically and politically. It can still become a major player in many markets, including the electric vehicle market. At the same time, it is also contributing to what the world needs from an environmental perspective.
—————————————–
References
[1] D. M. Tow, “A New Post on U.S.- China Relationship (June 2024): https://www.dontow.com/2024/06/a-new-post-on-u-s-china-relationship/
[2] See, e.g., “History of the Philippines,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Philippines.
[3] See, e.g., “The Philippines: Facts and History,” https://www.thoughtco.com/the-philippines-facts-and-history-195655, including the Philiappino-American war that ended when Spain ceded the archipelago islands of the Philippines to the U.S. in the 1898 Treaty of Paris.
[4] The famous Chinese navigator Zheng He and his large fleet of ships sailed all over Asia and many other parts of the world between 1405 and 1433 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), sailing through the South China Sea many times on their way to India, Africa, and other places. See, e.g., Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas, Open Road Distribution, 2014.
[5] See, e.g., “The 1943 Cairo Declaration“: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_Cairo_Declaration.
[6] See, e.g., “The Potsdam Declaration”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declaration.
[7] See, e.g., “September 2, 1945 Japanese Instrument of Surrender”: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/surrender-of-japan
[8] See, e.g., National Archives, Surrender of Japan (1945): https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/surrender-of-japan
[9] “China: UN expert says unilateral sanctions must not be used as foreign policy tool and means of economic coercion,” UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan, May 17, 2024: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/05/china-un-expert-says-unilateral-sanctions-must-not-be-used-foreign-policy. The Special Rapporteur will present her Xinjiang visit report to the Human Rights Council of the UN in September 2024.
[10] Numerous commentaries by very knowledgeable foreigners who have lived and worked in China for many years have criticized the U.S. sanctions against Xinjiang and who have voiced opinions similar to the comments of the UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan. See, e.g., Refs 11-13.
[11] Jerry Grey and his wife Ann, who have lived and worked in China during the last 20 years, including visiting Xinjiang several times and who have cycled across China including Xinjiang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jlUy2DR8TQ.
[12] An interview by Cyrus Janssen with Fernando Munoz Bernal and Noel Lee who visited Xinjiang in 2021 in “What It’s Really Like to Travel to Xinjiang, China?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8qnr8DXZOc. Cyrus Janssen is an American businessman who has lived and worked in China for about 10 years, and has gone back and visited China several times. Fernando Munez Bernal from Columbia (sometimes under the heading “Alex from Reporterly Media & Travel” has also other video broadcasts of his travels in many parts of China.
[13] Daniel Dumbrill, a Canadian businessman who has lived in China for many years and visited Xinjiang in 2021 in “Xinjiang Genocide: An Except from the ‘Genocide’ Panel”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-0l_zToN4. He has also many video broadcasts of his visits to China, which you can find in the web.