China is More Important to the USAs National Interest than Taiwan - Research Paper Example

China is more important to the USA’s national interest than Taiwan Introduction Over the years, Taiwan has been considered to be strategically important to the United States. This can be proved from assessing the history of United States and from geopolitics. In 1890, the army of the United States was able to win the American – Indian war and this enabled the United States to consolidate its western territory and was able to start focusing on other external matters. It then won the American – Spanish war in 1898 and from this, was able to acquire Philippines and Guam. US was also able to incorporate Hawaii and to sign an agreement that was tripartite on Samoa. It was able to make Wake Island to be its territory in 1900 and soon started to build the Panama Canal. All these were aided by Taiwan and the navy of the US continued to expand to a state whereby by the end of the Second World War, no nation would compare or compete with the navy. Taiwan has also aided in the building of the economic relations in the United States. Despite this however, China is considered to be more important than Taiwan and has been regarded to as an obstacle to building of the relationship between China and the United States (Copper, 2011). Thesis statement I disagree that Taiwan is more important than China to the national interest of the United States. The first reason that supports the argument of China being more important to interest of the United States than Taiwan emanates from the fact that China has maintained a steady increase in the political as well as the economic growth. This has increased the political and economic influence that it has on the other nations. China has been rated as being the third largest exporting and importing country in the global market at the beginning of twenty first century and the fourth largest in the economic rating. It therefore comes after United States, Japan and Germany. It is also among the top three states that are highly involved in foreign direct investment in the global market. It has also acquired more benefits from globalization than any other country in the world and this is evidenced by the share of the market it has in the global market. Its annual growth for exports averaged 4.5 percent while the country that followed attained only 1.8 percent and this was the United States. The Gross Domestic Product of China has also been observed to grow at a higher rate compared to the other developing countries. China has focused on ways of improving its performance in the global market and in this respect has considered the importance of liberalization and has encouraged economic integration by focusing on the involving the private and public investments. It has improved its export policies, tax reforms, devaluation of currency and has also encouraged the flow of imports that are free from duty. This has increased its productivity level and has enabled it to attain greater political power (The Ripon Forum, 2007). China therefore has attained control over the other nations of the world including the United States since using its political influence it can be able to dictate the international relations at the global level. China’s large population of around 1.3 billion people is also an indication that it is likely to become a world’s leading economy and this is an indication of increased political power. Being at this position, China is used by the industrialized countries such as the United States as a decisive factor that they use in making decisions on deterritorializing their global production. This in the United States caused a loss of many jobs in the industrial sector between 1995 and 2002 and in 2005, the United States experienced a great trade deficit with china, to a level that it has never experienced before with any other nation. China is also creating a higher demand for primary products and natural resources and is as a result causing an increase in the global prices of these products. China has also taken part in the international politics and has acquired membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and this has enabled it to participate in encouraging the developed countries like the United States to consider the interests of the developing countries (Roett & Pazz, 2008). The growth of the economy of China over the past years however indicates a move towards the historical equilibrium that was long term. The continued development of the economy of china therefore, will therefore alter the geopolitical position that the US has enjoyed over many years. China has created a dollar zone that it only shares with the United States and developed an exchange rate and this rate is pegged to the US dollar as a way of enforcing this zone. The globalization of China has therefore been highly used by the policy makers in the United States in making the economic policies applicable in the US. This is based on the consideration that China has a great position in the global economy. There are dangers that the globalization of china causes to the economy of the United States and for policy makers in the US to implement the most effective policies they need to consider the position and role played by China. Another effect that has resulted to the US as a result of globalization of China is the movements of labor in America. It has also resulted to a relationship that has been marked by technology transfer as well as the transfer of the capacity to manufacture. This relationship has enabled US to make a great investment in China and has resulted to a big deficit on trade that has made China to be the largest foreign debt holder in the US government. The amount of investment of the US government leads to the second reason of why china is important to the US more than the Taiwan. This is a political as well as an economic reason and this is holding of political and financial security. As a way of financing the existing trade deficits, China has ended up holding a lot of financial assets of the United States. The debt holding by china is was leads to the creation of the financial security and incase of a geo-political crisis, this would result to an increased leverage point for china. The cost of this debt includes a payment to China, which on the economy of US occurs as tax. The draining of income causes deflationary pressures on the government of the United States to the extent that the payments made are not spent. If these payments are spent, their output ends up benefiting the country of China and not the United States. This is because China uses them in production and from this, it is able to increase its productivity as well as demand. In respect of the financial security, the financial holdings of China give it leverage and power over the financial markets of the US. The treasury holdings of China in 2011 were estimated to be more than the reserve holdings and this enabling China to have its total holdings amounting to 50 percent of the balance sheet reserves. This therefore is an indication that China can affect the financial conditions of the US and therefore has effects similar to those of the Federal Reserve (Garnaut & Woo, 2009). The perspective of the financial reserve therefore indicates that China has the ability of influencing the operations of the financial market of the United States and might end up disrupting its function. By engaging in a strategic sale of the financial holding of the market, China might end up injuring the economy of the US. It is therefore easy for the economy of the United States to be held hostage by the policy makers of China and might therefore result to being a national security risk. The importance of China to the United State in this respect is observed at a level whereby China has the ability of influencing the activities and operations that take place in the United States’ financial market. The effect is however overstated considering that that china is now allowed to perform those activities since they would result to losses it decided to drive down the prices of bonds. It would also incur damage if the economy of the US were hit because china largely depends on exports. The economy of the United States to some extent has control over the financial regression since the debts are denominated in dollars and they indicate a promise that the treasury makes to pay the dollars at a future maturity date. The recent financial crisis that has resulted in the United States has resulted to emergence of Fed’s power to check the level of hostility that China causes to the financial markets of the US. Despite this however, the effect of China on the financial markets of the United States still exist and can still give China the ability of causing huge financial disruptions (Campbell, 2009). The geopolitical security perspective is considered in the respect that the manufacturing capacity of China has greatly increased. Its growth in the factory capacity has resulted to the growth of its financial worth and has therefore resulted to geopolitical influence in many countries and states. This is relevant in the post cold war era where countries have been observed to hold commercial battles that enable them to achieve their different interests, which are geo – economic. The geopolitical powers in this era are achieved by the geo – economic powers that a country has in the global market. China has a high commercial standing in the global market considering the manufacturing capacity that it possesses and that is above that of the other nations and states. United States has been in possession of this power over the years, which it majorly attained through winning different wars with different states but is presently at a risk of losing this power to China. The increasing manufacturing capacity of China as well as its strengths in terms of financial standing has given it an ability to increase its geo – economic power in a way that the geopolitical power of the United States is placed at a risk. This is because the manufacturing capacity that has been newfound in china has given it a commercial power that has subjected the economic interests of the other states in the world market. The power is also traced from its level of globalization as well as from its high levels of financial wealth that has enabled it to gain support and acquire financial dependency (Cohen, 2010). The third reason that explains the importance of China to the interests of the United States it because the leaders of China are not seeking any confrontation that is world – wide with the United States and from this, there emerges a point that China is not as such a threat to the United States but a positive challenge. In this respect, the financial and economic competition that China subjects to the United States should not be addressed through economical protection of the United States but should be addressed in terms of investing on the education of the American children. The way of handling the political influence resulting from China should also be reviewed and should not be addressed in ways that are lateral or involve timid isolation. It should however be addressed by allowing the Chinese authority to shape the international order and solving the international crisis. This will be made easier by the expansion of the existing institutions. The US should also reform the way of handling the violations of human rights by the Chinese and this should lead to other ways and not using denunciation and ignorance but through carefully emphasizing on the extent to which the actions fuel social unrest. The United States has a limited ability of molding the country in a democratic form. This is because it ends up rejecting and violating the principles of democracy in their aim to compete with China in the aim of achieving geopolitical power (Finn, 2007). China on the other hand still holds the applicable rule of law as it strives to solve disputes that result from the geopolitical interests that do not match the rapid social and economic advancements. The United States is also able to take the pace set by China and should do this by reaffirming the commitments that are expected in the multilateral institutions and in the international norms. This will enabled the United States to build a better position to enable them protect their norms. The American officials are aware but are not ready to agree that China has the ability of growing economically as well as politically and attaining a move towards creating political alliances and a free trade zone that will exclude the participation of the United States. These officials should therefore cooperate to focus the interest of china into processes and institutions that are multilateral and that will benefit the world market participants and especially the United States. The US should also focus on ensuring that China in its position builds the right alliances that will not only be aimed at attaining the geo – economic and consequently the geopolitical powers but as well those that will help in safeguarding their investment in China. The United States has in many cases tried to use China as a means of earning additional points politically. The two however should consider partnering to work together in order to achieve a strategic and larger goal. The US should not however approach China in a manner that is seeking for competition but should focus on trust, openness and cooperation. This will result to the economic recovery of the United States, as it will be able to receive more benefits from the growing economy of china (Ye, 2011). They should aim at creating sustainable relationship and in order for the United States to achieve its goals of peace promotion and enhancing development in the world. The relationship built with China will ensure that they work together towards overcoming the international challenges that prevent the attainment of the desired development. The two will also require to come to a point of mutual understanding whereby the interests of China will need to be understood by the United States and China will need to understand those of the United States. The United States will therefore require china in order to attain and be able to build the growth of the economy that is healthy and stable. China has also agreed to cooperate with the United States in the area of nonproliferation by demonstrating an understanding in the issues of priority in the administration of the US (Parley, 2012). Conclusion Thus, China is more important to the interests of the United States than Taiwan. Taiwan helped the United States the times when the United States worn various battles to win territory. However, since the cold war cold war ended, the importance of china has increased due to its growing position in the global market as a result of its rapid economic growth and development and is leading the United States towards attaining a stable economic growth. References Cohen, W. I. (2010). Americas response to China: A history of Sino-American relations. New York: Columbia University Press. Campbell, M. D. R. (2009). Howards long march: The strategic depiction of China in Howard government policy 1996-2006. Acton, A.C.T: ANU E Press. The Ripon Forum. (2007). The rise of china and the interests of the US. Retrieved from: http://www.cfr.org/china/rise-china-interests-us/p13455 Copper, J. F. (2011). Why we need Taiwan. Retrieved from: http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/why-we-need-taiwan-5815 Parley, T. I. (2012). The Economic and Geo – political implications of China. New American Foundation. 1-22. Ye, Z., Levine, S. I., & Liu, G. (2011). 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