How Not To Think About China-U.S. Competition

In a recent interview , Bob Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative during Trump's first term, said the following in response to a question about the U.S.-China relationship:

"My view is that China and the United States are both trying to achieve the same thing. China expects to be number one in the world, which it thinks is its rightful place, and the United States feels the same way about itself and the Western system in general. ..."

It's easy to be dismissive of casual rhetoric about the competition between nations. Maybe this is just vague talk that shouldn't be taken seriously, literally, or whatever, and therefore we shouldn't pay much attention to it. But given the way foreign policy folks are approaching China-U.S. competition these days, I worry that these sentiments are not just wrong -- we can't spend all our time worrying about people being wrong on the internet! -- but are wrong in a potentially dangerous way.

First of all, let me note a lack of clarity in all of this. Who are "China" and "the United States" here? Does he mean the people as a whole? The foreign policy establishment? The political elite? Putting aside the other problems I'm about to get to, it would at least be helpful if he could have stated things more clearly.

Turning to those other problems, as an American, I feel like I have at least some sense of how Americans think, so I'll start with that. Do Americans want to be number 1 in the world in Olympic medals or high school math scores or GDP/capita or freedom? In some vague and general way, maybe they do. But an overall ranking of countries, and where the U.S. stands in that ranking, is not something the average person pays much attention to because (1) it can't be measured in any useful way and (2) people have plenty of other things to think about. U.S. politicians are often saying things like "American is the greatest country in the world," but it's just something they say. It mostly just means "I really like living here." So do Americans "expect" to be number 1? Not in any meaningful way.

As for number 1 being the the "rightful place" of the U.S., I don't even know what to do with that. "Rightful" in what sense?

To be clear, as I noted, there are politicians, and probably a few other people, who say things like this, and in some cases may actually mean it. In my view, however, if these statements are translated into setting policy in general or managing China-U.S. competition in particular, it's going to lead us to a bad place. If this competition is taken too seriously, and every possible aspect of country rankings becomes the source of bad feelings, things will not end well.

Turning to China, with regard to how people in China think, I don't really know much, so I did the obvious thing and asked for opinions on social media . The always well-informed Kaiser Kuo said:

"Not a 'China expert,' and don't believe anyone to qualify as one, but that said, this kind of civilizational essentialism should have been retired along with fortune-cookie geopolitics. It's lazy, one-size-fits-all psychologizing those who can’t be bothered to learn anything about China trot out."

When I asked "Do you have an alternative characterization of all this? How do various key actors in China see China's place in the world?," he followed up with:

"I'd say most in the Chinese strategic class want regional hegemony, parity in comprehensive power with the US, enough to avoid being pushed around, but do not aspire to global primacy."

I'd be happy to hear more from people with a connection to China. Does any of this resonate with them? How do they actually think about these things?