Over the past three years, commenters have raked me over the coals for my opposition to the US cold war against China, particularly our economic sanctions, which go far beyond legitimate national security concerns. The single factor that is most often cited by China hawks is the PRC’s unwillingness to take a strong stand against Russia on the Ukraine War.
It is true that the US policy on Ukraine differs from China’s policy—we are far worse. Thus consider the recent UN vote on a resolution condemning the invasion and calling for Russia to withdraw from Ukrainian territory. While China joined 65 countries in abstaining, the US joined Russia, Iran and North Korea in opposing the resolution:
The United States voted with Russia, North Korea, Iran and 14 other Moscow-friendly countries Monday against a resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for the return of Ukrainian territory. The resolution passed overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly.
Only one of our allies joined us in this vote, and that seems to have been due to extreme pressure from the Trump administration:
Here’s a question I have for all of the people that have argued we need sanctions on China due to its ambivalence on the Ukraine War issue. What sort of sanctions do you favor being put on the US, now that our government is far more supportive of Russia’s policy than China ever was? Should the EU, Canada and Japan put even stricter sanctions on the US than on China?
China’s poor human rights record is also cited by cold warriors. But China’s single worst human rights violation–it’s decision to put roughly a million Uyghurs into concentration camps–was endorsed by Donald Trump during his first term in office. Once again, it’s difficult to see the argument for putting sanctions on a country because of concern over human rights, when the country considering sanctions endorsed those policies.
