During the 5th century BC, cold-blooded Chinese general, military strategist, and theorist Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War, in which he offers this advice to leaders hoping to prevail on the battlefield:
Know your opponent and your own strength, and win 100 percent of your battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, and win half. Know neither yourself nor your enemy, and lose every engagement.
This wise advice might now usefully be applied to US relations with China. As a lifelong student of China and committed critic of communism, who has just returned home from teaching at Peking University, I wish my fellow conservatives would listen.
Unfortunately, the administration is not listening. In early April, America’s vice president J.D. Vance displayed how little he understands China when he complained, “We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.” That oddly incoherent comment (is someone who works in a factory or engages in international finance still a “peasant”?) typified the reflexive contempt and hostility many American conservatives express towards our superpower rival. This kind of rhetoric is entirely counterproductive, but it is spilling into public policy.
