Dialogue of the Deaf With China

Hundreds of Chinese officials are in Washington for something called the Strategic and Economic Dialogue. It appears to be a dialogue of the deaf.

An unnamed State Department official is quoted as saying the talks are an exercise in narrowing the differences between the two sides. The truth is that what we have are not “differences” to be managed and narrowed.

Rather, we now confront an increasingly overtly hostile China seeking to displace – and, if necessary, to defeat – the United States in the Pacific, and likely beyond.

Chinese hacking of our computers and island-building in the South China Sea are acts that require appropriate responses now. Engaging in “dialogue” that purports simply to “manage” them is a formula for far more serious acts of aggression, and possibly war, in the future.