First among peers or hegemon: The back room struggle over US-China policy

US President Donald Trump Trump...sees China as a strategic competitor...in a classic capitalist-imperialist manner, more appropriate to the 19th and early 20th century, and that's unsettling because those kinds of rivalries lead to war. But it's different from the model that was being pursued before...the one with the goal of hegemony, rather than just interstate rivalries over markets and such, according to American journalist and political commentator Don DeBar.

DeBar made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on escalating tensions between the US and China over number of issues.

China has lambasted as "dirty play” the US clampdown on Chinese telecom giant Huawei, a day after Washington announced fresh sanctions on the company and other firms of the Asian country.  

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Thursday retorted at a regular press conference that “what the US does has nothing to do with the word 'clean'… What it does is... dirty play.”

Her comments came just a day after the White House announced visa restrictions for Huawei employees and those working for other Chinese firms if they were involved in alleged human rights abuses.

China and the US are at odds over a growing number of issues, including the origin of the new coronavirus and Beijing’s policies in Hong Kong.

China denounces US for clampdown on employees of Huawei, other Chinese firms

China has condemned as "dirty play" the US clampdown on Huawei and other Chinese firms.

“It's interesting watching the US media pick apart the back-and-forth between Washington and Beijing that's been going on lately. And they seem to criticize President Trump for being aggressive, and even reckless, for what's basically a long-distance game of chicken at the boardroom table over business, and they didn't have that criticism for President Obama when he was sending the Navy through the South China Sea, and in essence threatening war; nor do I remember the newspapers here referring to the installation of THAAD missiles as being reckless or dangerous during the Obama administration,” DeBar said.

“The nature of the relationship between the US and China hasn't changed. That's something that's a material result of the aggregate activity in both places, and across borders, and out in the world in general. But the treatment of that relationship has changed substantially. Trump on the one hand also sees China as a strategic competitor - and he does so I think in a classic capitalist-imperialist manner, more appropriate to the 19th and early 20th century, and that's unsettling because those kinds of rivalries lead to war,” he added.  

“But it's different from the model that was being pursued before, not just by the Obama administration, but by the Bush administration and the Clinton administration and the Bush administration and the Reagan administration, because when one looks at the relationship with the Soviet Union during part of that time, and then China after the fall of the Soviet Union, the US relationship in each case, was one of hegemony, or the one with the goal of hegemony, rather than just interstate rivalries over markets and such,” he noted.

“I think this most recent situation, as unsettling as it is - and perhaps even as irrational as it is - in one way is a resetting to an almost normal state of rivalry between two great powers. And I'm hoping that it leads to a recognition that there is a de facto global partnership between the US and China and other great powers around the world that doesn't necessarily rest on imperialism, that in any event allows, to use China's term, a win-win approach to certain macroeconomic needs and problems, and that could end up benefiting everyone. We don't have that many choices. I would choose an improvement in mankind's condition over a radioactive wasteland, but unfortunately, it's not going to be my decision,” he concluded.

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