‘Breaking the Engagement' Review: The China-U.S. Divorce
'There is no realistic prospect or false nirvana of returning to an amicable and cooperative bilateral relationship,' David Shambaugh writes in 'Breaking the Engagement: How China Won and Lost America.' Few American scholars have a better understanding of China than Mr. Shambaugh. So when the George Washington University professor tells us that the official U.S. strategy of engagement with Beijing is dead—'D-E-A-D'—we had better pay attention.
This isn't only a question of state policy. The American people have had enough of China, too. Mr. Shambaugh points to a recent Pew survey, which found that eight out of 10 Americans hold 'unfavorable' views of China, with 42% describing it as an 'enemy.' Only 6% see it as a 'partner.'
Certainly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement that the U.S. would revoke the visas of many Chinese students who are already in this country—and make it much harder for future Chinese students to enroll at American universities—lays bare the fact that the U.S.-China relationship is at a nadir. It would not be overly shrill to say that in many of these cases we're educating the enemy. Mr. Shambaugh, who describes himself as a 'disillusioned former engager,' would agree. (His disillusion, it should be noted, began when the Chinese government banned him from Beijing's many universities and think tanks after he published a long essay in this newspaper in 2015, titled 'The Coming Chinese Crackup.' It took a personal slight to make the scales fall from his eyes, but fall they did.)
A China-hawk ever since, Mr. Shambaugh sets out to explain how Washington and Beijing have reached the lowest ebb in their relations since Richard Nixon's 'breakthrough' in 1972.
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