Obama the Best Remedy to American Hegemony

April 29th marks President Obama’s 100 days in office. Within these 100 days, he spent 13 of them visiting 19 countries and meeting 33 foreign leaders. On May 1st, Jeffrey Bader, Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, sent an important message saying that Obama views China as an important member and one of the leaders of the international community. It is not big threat or enemy to America. On Taiwan, Obama says “If they reach an agreement to reduce tensions, I don’t see any reason for the U.S. to flash red or yellow lights.”

People first thought that Obama might be more aggressive than his predecessor, George Bush, in international strategies in order to avoid the negative effects brought by his skin color and Muslim name. However, his words and actions during these 100 days have relieved people of this worry. From every sign and evidence, the fever of vicious American hegemony is starting to go down.

Two world wars in the 20th century gave birth to a new America and a new world. The focus of the new world order dominated by the U.S. is that the U.S. assumes security responsibilities for certain countries of the Eastern and Western Hemisphere. In the Western hemisphere, the United States established the NATO mechanism, exercising collective defense. On the surface, it seems to be diametrically opposed to the Soviet Union, when in fact it also plays a role in preventing the resurgence of German militarism.

The Fever of Vicious Hegemony is Going Down

In the Eastern hemisphere, the U.S. assumes the defensive tasks for Japan. Likewise, it’s a move designed to prevent the resurgence of Japanese militarism and to help stabilize the Asian situation. Just out of their acknowledgement of this benevolent hegemony of America, four Chinese marshals (Chen Yi, Ye Jianying, Xu Xiangqian, and Nie Rongzhen) proposed Sino-U.S. cooperation in the 1960s.

Starting in the 1970s, China and U.S. turned dissension into harmony. To cope with the Soviet Union, the Taiwan issue was set aside. The U.S. regarded Taiwanese territory as an unsinkable aircraft carrier, holding the Taiwan regime like a pet close in its arms. As a result, the People’s Liberation Army was afraid to act recklessly. It is one of the core beliefs of international U.S. strategy, but a hostile act with which China had to live.

U.S. hegemony has two categories: the secret and the apparent. The secret category, which has been revealed in John Perkins’ book “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” in 2004, is to eliminate foreign regimes, political force or even an individual they dislike by means of money, women and bullets. It runs counter to Obama’s election promises and for sure will be restrained in the Obama age. The apparent category refers to foreign regime change by public use of military force. The Iraqi war launched by Bush was one such typical worst case.

The apparent hegemony of the U.S. will surely reduce its fever as the strong anti-Iraq war Obama group moves into the White House. It will lead to many problems with the secret vicious hegemony concerning Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Tibetan Independence, Taiwanese Independence etc., for which the Obama-led White House already feel has been tried and won’t regret once having discarded them. Some great civilian brains have called for a complete U.S. retreat from hegemony.

One of them is Christopher Preble, director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. In his speech delivered at the University of Chicago on April 28th, Christopher holds the opinion that the U.S. pays too high a price for its role as “international gendarmerie.” The evident cost is the annual security expense (mainly the military expenditure) of 800 billion U.S. dollars, namely 2600 U.S. dollars per capita (for China, it’s only 92 U.S. dollars). Besides, there are unforeseeable costs that are to be paid in the far future. For instance, those civilians killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan by the U.S. army which will inflame people’s lifelong hatred of the United States.

Christopher Preble holds that the U.S. assumes responsibility for the security of its friendly nations at the expense of its own national defense. Those nations get a free ride and sleep peacefully in the arms of the U.S. He also suggests that the U.S. cancel its obligations of safeguarding the peace in Taiwan straits and to cut the size of the U.S. navy significantly. This indention can be smelled out in this year’s budget reduction plan from the Pentagon, which includes the plan for aircraft carrier reduction and to stop purchasing the expensive F-22 stealth combat aircraft specially designed to fight against China.

Shall China embrace the U.S.?

Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Admiral, has proposed to build a combined fleet of the free world in 2005, namely a thousand fleets (also called “one thousand fleet navy “) to safeguard the seas. According to his new strategic plans, the major mandates of the American navy have shifted towards safeguarding the security of the public seas.

Mullen, the former commander of the Pacific Ocean fleet, is very familiar and friendly to China, who he is unable to pose any threat to U.S. security for a very long time. He and other American military leaders all believe that China’s current defense strategy is mysterious and too complex to understand. If China increases the transparency of its navy and develops friendly and sincere cooperation with the United States, China is hoping to be included into this one thousand fleet navy proposal, according to Mullen.

In his press conference on April 29th, Obama stressed that he has spent no effort during his first one hundred days and will continue in these efforts in the hundreds of days to follow, keeping the “American Dream” alive for all those men and women who have believed in this journey from the day it began. It indicates a sign that the trend of vicious hegemony in the Age of Obama is turning out to be benevolent. Walter Mead, the Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, sees the vista of Obama’s world strategy, but points out that the effect cannot be easured instantly, and Obama is focusing his energy on changing domestic policy; in just, 100 days, he has signed 19 executive orders.

While some American experts hold the opinion that the rhythm of Sino-U.S. relations contains superficial conflicts, furtive efforts for reconciliation have never changed since Dwight David Eisenhower (the only change now is that China is the top holder of U.S. debt). Three explicit edges are: 1. the China-U.S. trade balance, 2. the human rights issue, 3. The U.S. uses Taiwan to obstruct China’s reunification. On these three aspects, Clinton mainly focused on the latter two, giving less attention to the first. Bush loosened his control on the second, and mainly focuses on the third. It seems Obama is likely to produce the exact opposite results. He attaches special attention to vigorous economic growth, developing industry and creating more jobs. Even before he moved into White House, he announced his intention to adjust Sino-U.S. economic trade relation. Therefore, he will focus on the first. The human rights advocates among Democrats will press him to shift focus to the second.

Obama, due to lack of diplomatic experience, will have an open mind to the advice of Vice-President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Hilary has a mild attitude towards China, and Biden in particular wants to know more about it. Such a combination of the three will benefit China greatly, at least as it will ease the U.S.’s stress on its strategy of targeting China as America’s competitor. Such a combination will gradually move away from the Bush era when combative Vice-President Dick Cheney led by the nose.

The tradition of American politics has been that the “wannabe president” first condemns China after being elected, and then the president takes a practical approach in handing Sino-U.S. relations. Moreover, this rule has been broken by Obama. The fever of the U.S.’s vicious hegemony is starting to go down in Obama’s time, for China is an unprecedented opportunity.

Just like two-way efforts are essential for a man and woman to be in love, Beijing shall formulate a new U.S. strategy to embrace Washington, which is now undergoing a change to the right direction, and pay attention to the following four points: 1. Turn from passive to proactive; 2. Change from rigid to flexible; 3. Take consideration of the other side in terms of economic development and trade policy; 4. Allow different opinions on human right issue. In one word, “seek common ground while maintaining differences on minor issues and achieving prosperity through diversification.