[snowwrestler]

This piece assumes and depends on a fear of China. That is, it takes for granted that enabling the economic success of China is necessarily to the detriment of the U.S.

This is an assumption that is worth inspecting. While it is true that China's technological capabilities have increased dramatically since the Clinton presidency, it's also true that their economy has improved, lifting millions of Chinese into the middle class, and their trade with the U.S. has grown dramatically.

Trade is a stabilizing influence on international relations. Our huge volume of trade with China is why Trump is having a "trade war" with China today, not a real war. Trade wars are better in every way compared to a shooting war. But a trade war can only exist between nations that share significant trade.

Is our relationship with China perfect? No. Agree with the tactics or not (I don't, personally [1]), but the Trump administration is responding to real domestic concerns about how China operates.

Is China's governance and approach to their citizens' civil rights perfect? Definitely not!

But: it is a desirable goal is grow the international economy. Doing so lifts people out of poverty, gives them a reason to seek peace, and creates beneficial large-scale effects like improving efficiency and slowing population growth.

Growing the global economy means that other nations will prosper and develop their technologies, which include military technologies. One particular deal with China--bad as it was--was not the lynchpin of nuclear detente; China had the means to wipe the U.S. off the globe the day Clinton took office.

They don't want to. That preference for mutually prosperous peace is far more important to the national security of the U.S. than the details of a particular military deal.

The article depicts the Clinton administration as having "a fear of offending China." What they actually had (and share with a large number of other people) is a belief that China does not have to lose, or be "contained", for the U.S. to keep winning. In fact, everything we know about economic growth says that the U.S. will win more if we trade productively with growing nations.

[1] IMO the TPP with the U.S. in it would have been more effective at shaping China's behavior than the current U.S. tariffs, with fewer negative side-effects in the U.S.

[president]

This is a logical standpoint but also a naive one because it ignores China's end goal of erasing democracy and the silent means by which they have already started succeeding. This has been covered by numerous China experts over the years but largely ignored due to internal US corruption, which is not helped by bribery on the part of the CCP. In a vacuum, growing their economy could be seen as a good thing for the global economy but the reality is that by investing and empowering the CCP is actually strengthening their grip on breaking down democracies - which will actually be worse off for the world economy. Remember that most people are not looking for the demise of Chinese people, rather they are looking for an end to the CCP dynasty.