The Washington Examiner Symposium: What is America’s role in the world?

Over the last decade, it has become clear that the People’s Republic of China poses a generational threat to the United States and will challenge America for superpower status in short order. The post-Cold War assumption that the trend toward liberal democracy and capitalism was evolutionary and inevitable has proven to be not only false but also China’s opening to exploit and pervert the very institutions we built to encourage that trend.

The good news, however, is that despite China’s impressive economic growth, the predatory and aggressive practices it uses to attain that success also make prospective partner nations wary. This is to America’s advantage so long as our leaders unapologetically promote the rewards of being on our team — and make clear that it is going to be necessary to choose a side in this fight.

As China has demonstrated with the Belt and Road initiative, global influence in this struggle will not be exclusively expanded by military might. Investment and development are now equally if not more powerful, and while the PRC has prioritized providing the cheapest and easiest product, the United States can offer a vastly superior solution. Chinese investment is targeted at either harvesting resources for domestic consumption or adding assets to the PRC’s ledger. It is fundamentally rapacious, and so exploitative of its erstwhile partners.

In contrast, American economic partnerships can strengthen our allies because true market dynamism flourishes only in an atmosphere of mutual profit. But in order to fulfill the promise of that dynamism, U.S. leaders must stimulate competition and creativity in the sort of free marketplace China abhors.

As we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, the world faces, to borrow a phrase, a time for choosing. Whether wittingly or not, the virus originated in the PRC, starkly demonstrating the devastation China is capable of unleashing on the world. But the United States cannot simply assume others will “make the right choice” if we want to continue to shape global outcomes to our advantage.

America has the opportunity to show the world that while the People’s Republic of China wants vassals and subjects, we seek partners and allies who will share in our security and prosperity. The United States can promise a radically different future for the world, one fueled by abundant energy and filled with the promise of unlimited innovation, if we have the will and purpose to offer it.