By Jerome A. Cohen
Professor Mearsheimer’s recent essay in Foreign Affairs deserves careful analysis from many viewpoints. Here are some of my initial reactions:
He does not examine the difficulties China is encountering and will increasingly encounter in maintaining its phenomenal economic development. Nor does he give weight to the challenges the regime will confront on the domestic social and political fronts, not only because of economic dissatisfactions. Of course, because of the PRC’s non-transparency, it is far more difficult for foreign observers to evaluate these factors than to measure the impact on foreign policy of the domestic disarray confronting the United States and other liberal democracies. Yet one hopes that the openness of the liberal societies will eventually improve their relative prospects for coping with domestic challenges that inevitably affect foreign policy.
I wish he would discuss in greater detail the challenge of peacefully getting through the next decade by successfully managing relations with China. What steps to bolster Taiwan might legitimately be perceived to cross Beijing’s “red line” and violate US assurances to Beijing? Can crucial progress be made on climate, health and other rapidly emerging issues while the liberal democracies belatedly strengthen their positions on Beijing’s periphery and properly denounce Beijing’s many provocations? Should they continue the struggle to maintain existing cooperation with the PRC in such fields as business, education, scientific and socio-economic research, and law reform? Much food for thought.