The US China Longer Telegram strategy paper provokes little debate in Beijing

BEIJING – A recent U.S. strategy paper on China, widely read in Washington, DC, has garnered only a passing response in Beijing, where limited public discussion has focused on one point: the author has wrong of China.

The “Longest Telegram” published in late January proposed how the new US administration should deal with China’s rise through detailed criticism of the Communist Party government under President Xi Jinping.

An effective U.S. approach to China requires “the same disciplined approach it applied to the defeat of the Soviet Union,” the newspaper said. “The US strategy must remain laser-focused on Xi, his inner circle, and the Chinese political context in which they govern.”

The anonymous author is a “former senior U.S. government official,” according to DC-based think tank Atlantic Council, which released the lengthy document.

The piece attempts to echo a historical document that shaped Washington’s policy on the Soviet Union, called “The Long Telegram,” which was sent from Moscow in February 1946 at the dawn of the Cold War. .

So far in Beijing, the main state media has not debated much about the newspaper, with the exception of the vociferous tabloid Global Times and even almost entirely in English. “The Longest Telegram” is a hegemonic farce of the final phase, ”reads the title of an opinion.

On the official news website of the People’s Liberation Army of China, an article in Chinese described the strategy piece as an outdated mentality and contrasted its view of the country with a recent state media report on the ability of ‘a Chinese woman to get out of poverty.

China’s Foreign Ministry, in response to a question from a Global Times reporter, criticized “The Longer Telegram” for its call to contain China.

The ministry said, according to an official translation, that these comments against the ruling Communist Party were “a collection of rumors and conspiracy theories” and that attempts to drive US-China relations into the conflict would result in a “total failure.”

Few comments at the state level occur as tensions arise between the United States and China, the two largest economies in the world and managed by very different government systems.

“The Longest Telegram” generated a lot of controversy in the world of U.S. foreign policy, with critics saying the document mis-characterizes China and places too much emphasis on Xi’s role. But many agree with the newspaper’s call for a more thoughtful American policy on China.

This growing cohesion around a tougher U.S. stance on China is a source of concern in Beijing.

“The longest telegram” does not represent the reality of China and is not a good starting point for dialogue, said Shen Yamei, deputy director and associate researcher in the U.S. department of the Institute of International Studies of China , based on the study.

According to Shen, the mistake the document makes is that it is not applicable in this situation, as China did not say it wanted to replace the US. He added that it is the United States that cares if it loses its central position in the world.

Critics say the state-dominated system in China benefited from allowing it to join the World Trade Organization in 2001 without quickly incorporating the free market rate and rule-based system that countries such as the US.

To counter these developments, “The Longer Telegram” says the U.S. should establish clear red lines and national security points for Beijing that, if believed, would induce a firm U.S. response.

Some of those red lines include a Chinese military attack or an economic blockade against Taiwan, according to the report, which also said the U.S. should push back more firmly on Chinese threats to U.S. global communications systems.

The author of the original “Long Telegram” in 1946 was American diplomat George Kennan, who responded from Moscow to a U.S. State Department consultation on Soviet foreign policy. Kennan published a related article the following year in Foreign Affairs under the pseudonym “X” and in 1952 began a brief tenure as U.S. ambassador to Moscow.

In his paper, Kennan stated that the Russians were determined to expand the Soviet system around the world and against coexistence with the West. He believed that instead of relaxing, the US should press for cooperation with the Soviet government, or even its internal collapse.

For more than 70 years, including the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States led the so-called world liberal order in which international institutions established rules for a global system.

That has begun to change in the last decade or so, with China’s growing economic and technological weight, alongside former U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign policy approach.

It is not yet clear what steps President Joe Biden will take, but he remains in a tough stance on China, albeit in a calmer tone than the previous administration.

“The challenges with Russia may be different from those in China, but they are just as real,” Biden told European allies in a speech last week.

Biden held his first phone call as president with Xi earlier this month. The U.S. president and first lady also aired a congratulatory video for the Lunar New Year, which was widely shared on Chinese social media.

Scattered online comments about “The Longer Telegram” have continued to be despised.

In a roughly 30-minute video from Feb. 5 that has more than 900,000 views, Fudan University professor Shen Yi jokingly rejected the newspaper’s attempt to replicate Kennan’s efforts.

A February 7 online article by Zhongnan University of Economics and Law professor Qiao Xinsheng said in an online article that the strategy paper does not accurately analyze the Soviet Union’s own difficulties and that the US should not expect China to “disintegrate”.