The US has been getting China all wrong for two decades

History will not judge recent US policy towards China kindly: intellectual and political laziness have rendered it incapable of accepting China’s rise or responding effectively to its increasing overreach

A policy recalibration is needed on both sides, for the sake of all

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Tom Plate

Tom Plate is a university professor and a veteran columnist focused on Asia and America.

Published: 1:00am, 7 Dec 2022Updated: 1:57am, 7 Dec 2022

Did you know that, in American-speak, a group of flying corvids is not called a “flock” but a “murder”? Right now, amid the warm Laguna area of southern California, whip-smart crows are already spreading their wings in anticipation of spring.

They’re not armed with flight plans to dive-bomb people barbecuing in their backyards. Instead, these tradition-bound, family-oriented, hard-working survivors will soon be scoping out reliable food sources and supply lines with assertive aerial surveillance.

Yes, feathering their nest can get to be quite a racket, but, on the whole, their needs are well accepted by the settler Homo sapiens here, so that in this Pacific neighbourhood, a steady peace prevails between birdkind and mankind.

Not so much within the Homo sapiens species: Contrast the “cunning” Chinese in their South China Sea lair, and the “intrusive” Americans with their surrounding military bases and pushy Seventh Fleet with those “freedom of navigation” sea-swoops. Who’s the aggressor and who’s the acceptable nester?