Tom Plate: Choose your enemies carefully
From The South China Morning Post, via A Glimpse of the World:
Sagacious commentators have concluded that American policy in Asia generally lacks focus and coherence. I have to agree with that. But what I do not agree with is the notion that the only or best way to achieve overall US policy coherence is to make a mortal blood enemy out of China.
For starters, China does not truly regard America with the kind of contempt and fear which the US, for instance, once reserved for the Soviet Union. There is much that the Chinese people admire about America; and there is good reason for the Chinese to view it not as an impediment to their future but as a semi-friendly associate and occasional ally. War between the two would not only be tragically costly, it would be monumentally stupid.
