(SONG CHEN / CHINA DAILY)
The United States is facing a series of internal challenges, not least its highest inflation rate for 40 years and worsening social division.
A long-term unwillingness to face up to these problems and the pushing of an “external threats” narrative to distract from these is at the root of this malaise.
The US should change its Cold War mentality and seek development through dialogue and cooperation with other major powers.
The domestic dilemmas facing the US are, to an extent, related to exogenous crises, but a major factor is the country’s long-standing social and economic maladies.
Due to the lack of social and partisan consensuses, it is difficult for the country to advance systematic reform to treat these “chronic diseases”.
The US has a powerful ability to deal with short-term crises, but the absence of long-term planning in terms of emergency response policies may lead to lagging negative impacts.
For example, the US expanded its fiscal deficit to more than 10 percent of its GDP and implemented a loose monetary policy from 2020 to 2021.
These relief measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to this year’s high inflation.
On some social governance issues, such as pandemic prevention, the US government has been trapped because public opinion is split and it has struggled to formulate unified and effective policies.
This reform stagnation allows social and economic problems to fester, breeds public anxiety which feeds populist movements and anti-intellectualism, making social governance more difficult.
US political scientists point out that the US must seek social consensus to break the vicious circle of blocked reform and social division.
In September 2020, the Carnegie Foundation released a report titled “Making US Foreign Policy Work Better for the Middle Class”.
It suggested that Joe Biden, who was running for president at the time, should understand more deeply “domestic economic and social issues and their complex interaction with foreign policy decisions”.
The report said the US government is over-committed to “sustaining US primacy” and creating “a new Cold War”, rather than trying to solve domestic problems. As a result, it is unable to unite society.
It also highlighted the need for domestic reforms and constructive international cooperation to enhance the long-term economic competitiveness of the US.
However, the US has been intensifying its efforts along the path of major power rivalries and a “Cold War” mentality since 2021.
The Carnegie report suggests that the US is happy to cooperate with “like-minded allies”, but ignores equal dialogue with other countries.
In addition, US politicians are used to publicly hyping up the so-called China threat and discrediting the international cooperation initiatives launched by China.
Although many senior US officials said that they do not seek a “new Cold War”, their “values diplomacy” results in worsening relations between China and the US and makes it even more difficult for Washington to solve its festering internal problems.
In other words, the aggressive foreign policy of the US has triggered a global crisis, which in turn has exacerbated its domestic plight.
For example, the trade war, economic sanctions and technology embargo launched against China have damaged global supply chains, pushing up US inflation.
The US is also politicizing issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes it impossible for major countries to coordinate policies and pursue joined-up global governance.
Inflation and the energy crisis have also impacted the Biden administration’s biggest domestic commitment — the bipartisan, $1.2 trillion infrastructure construction bill.
As of June, construction industry costs in the US have increased by 8.6 percent compared with a year ago.
As a result, bids for infrastructure projects in many states have come in 30 percent over budget, meaning Biden’s infrastructure investment plan will have to shrink significantly.
“Liberal hawks” in the US believe that the US can exclude China, Russia and other countries from the international system by forming a unilateral “alliance of values”.
However, today’s world is highly interconnected and multipolar.
Dialogue and cooperation among major countries plays a key role in dealing with global issues such as the pandemic and climate change.
An out-of-control confrontation between major powers will produce a chain of reactions that negatively impact the global political and economic system of which the US is an integral part.
The US administration’s “values diplomacy” has done nothing to heal domestic division but has created an “anti-China” sentiment among decision-makers in Washington.
For example, China tariffs imposed by the Trump administration heaps an extra $51 billion spend on US businesses every year.
The crisis-plagued US administration recently softened its position on China-US relations, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterating Washington’s commitment to the “six must-nots”.
Yet, with a Cold War mindset, some US politicians still intend to gain advantage in negotiations by putting “extreme pressure” on China, and repeatedly testing it on core issues such as the Taiwan question.
The US should realize that confronting China is not an effective way to treat its domestic ills.
The author is an assistant research fellow of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.