Longer Telegram, US strategy document in China, sparks little debate in Beijing

BEIJING – A recent US strategy article on China, widely read in Washington, DC, got only a fleeting response in Beijing, where limited public discussion focused on one point: the author got China wrong.

“The Longer Telegram”, released in late January, proposed how the new US government should deal with China’s rise, presenting a detailed critique of the Communist Party government under President Xi Jinping.

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

The anonymous author is a “former senior US government official”, according to the think tank Atlantic Council, based in DC, which published the extensive article.

The play attempts to echo a historic document that shaped Washington’s policy towards the Soviet Union – called “The Long Telegram”, sent from Moscow in February 1946, at the start of the Cold War.

So far in Beijing, the state-run mainstream media has not discussed much about the paper, except for the noisy tabloid Global Times, and even then, almost entirely in English. “‘Longer Telegram’ a hegemonic farce at an advanced stage,” read the title of an opinion article.

On the official news website of the People’s Liberation Army of China, a Chinese article portrayed the strategy as having an outdated mentality and contrasted its view of the country with a recent state media report on a Chinese woman’s ability to lift herself out of poverty.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 such comments against the ruling Communist Party were “a collection of rumors and conspiracy theories” and attempts to drive US-China relations into conflict would result in “total failure”.

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

“The Longer Telegram” has sparked much controversy in the United States’ foreign policy world, with critics saying the paper mischaracterizes China and places too much emphasis on Xi’s role. But many agree with the newspaper’s call for a better-thought-out US policy toward China.

This growing cohesion around a tougher US stance towards China is a source of concern in Beijing.

“The Longer 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 US department of the Institute for International Studies in China.

According to Shen, the mistake the newspaper makes is not being applicable in this situation, since China did not say that it wanted to replace the United States. She added that it is the United States that is concerned with losing its central position in the country. world.

Critics say the state-dominated system of China benefited from being allowed to join the World Trade Organization in 2001 without quickly incorporating the kind of rules-based, free market system that countries like the United States defend.

To contain these developments, “The Longer Telegram” says the United States should establish clear red lines and national security points for Beijing that, if passed, would induce a firm United States response.

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

The author of the original “Long Telegram” in 1946 was the American diplomat George Kennan, who responded from Moscow to a question from the US State Department about Soviet foreign policy. Kennan published a related article the following year in Foreign Affairs magazine under the pseudonym “X” and in 1952 began a brief term as United States ambassador to Moscow.

In his article, Kennan maintained that the Russians were determined to expand the Soviet system worldwide and against coexistence with the West. He believed that, instead of appeasement, the United States should use pressure to secure cooperation with the Soviet government, or potentially even its internal collapse.

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

This has started to change in the past decade, with China’s growing economic and technological influence, alongside the unilateral approach of former US President Donald Trump to foreign policy.

It is not yet clear what action President Joe Biden will take, but he maintains a tough stance towards China, albeit in a calmer tone than the previous government.

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

Biden made his first call as president with Xi earlier this month. The president and the first lady of the United States also released a video of greeting the Lunar New Year, widely published on Chinese social networks.

Scattered online comments about “The Longer Telegram” remained dismissive.

In a February 30, 30-minute video that had more than 900,000 views, Fudan University professor Shen Yi dismissed the newspaper’s attempt to replicate Kennan’s efforts as a joke.

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