The Rise of China: A Brief Review of the Implications on the Transatlantic Partnership
China’s ascent as a global economic power has met with mounting alarm on both sides of the Atlantic. Many argue that China’s voracious demand for natural resources to support its growing economy will endanger the policy objectives and strategic interests of the transatlantic partnership. Counter to this prevailing view, Joseph Quinlan, a non-resident transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, posits that supporting a vigorous China will better align with the long-term objectives of both Europe and the US.
Ambivalence in Washington toward China has been reflected in shifts in rhetoric from the Clinton through Bush administrations, labeling China first as a “strategic partner,” then a “strategic competitor,” and most recently a “peer competitor.” Such language suggests that relationships with China are increasingly confrontational and competing parties feel they have everything to lose and little to gain from China’s success.
Quinlin argues that the transatlantic community must engage China in areas of mutual interest to promote greater cooperation across economic and geopolitical fronts. He identifies three specific areas of mutual interest where common solutions could advance the transatlantic community’s economic interests.
- Identify and Cooperate in Areas of Mutual Interest such as climate change, the environment, energy security, and an aging population. Find common solutions in new energy technologies, renewable energy sources, and carbon emissions reduction. The transatlantic community should help strengthen China’s financial sector and help increase China’s participation in multilateral organizations to streamline macroeconomic policies across North America, Europe, and Asia.
- Continue to Strengthen the Transatlantic Partnership by lowering the various tariffs and non-tariffs, regulations, and bilateral industry impediments slowing China’s integration into the global economy. Squelch any rankling bilateral tensions.
- Get Things Right at Home To secure their interests abroad, the US and Europe must first shape up domestic policies. Quinlin’s task list for the US includes increasing the national savings rate, reconciling unsustainable Medicare and Medicaid payments, reforming social security, strengthening the public school system, and cutting the federal budget deficit. Europe, for its part, must implement labor market reforms, the creation of a pan-European capital market, deregulation of the service economy, and the Lisbon Agenda. Such initiatives will assist in making the US and European economies domestically robust and globally efficient, while ensuring that their citizens are intellectually competitive in engaging and collaborating with their Chinese counterparts.
