Is China a friend or foe of the United States?

[JasonDebenah89]

Trading and economic ally or national foe of the United States?

[PSOL]

We are economic partners, yet fight over influence in the Pacific.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

Foe that should be friend because of the economic ties. It's complicated.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Rival. There are three ways to see relations between states in the anarchic system- the Kantian way, in which two countries see each other as friends and partners and perceive no threat on each other's security, the Hobbesian way in which the countries see each other as direct enemies and threats that, while they cooperate to keep the peace, could enter a war at any moment, and the Lockean way, in which the countries see each other as rivals and competitors but still strive for cooperation that increases the prosperity of both and don't perceive a complete 0-sum game (like in the Hobbesian system). I believe that as of now, America and China are still in the Lockean territory, but the balance is slowly slipping towards Hobbesian.

I think that one of the most important foreign policy objectives for the American government should be to keep a Lockean relationship with other major powers, like China, Russia, India and the EU, if a Kantian one is impossible. Of course, sometimes (like with Putin's Russia) it's impossible because the other nation is just too aggressive and acts unacceptably.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

China is most certainly a foe of the United States.

[Meclazine for Israel]

China thinks US citizens are a bunch of lazy suckers who represent a massive economic opportunity.

China have gone around the world and taken full advantage of their economic power, particularly in Africa.

China are totally corrupt in their dealings abroad. Case in point:

http://www.riotinto.com/energyandminerals/simandou-4695.aspx

Simandou.

A 2 Bn tonne iron ore resource discovered by an Australian company in Guinea in West Africa.

The Guinean government "gave" half the project to Chinalco, a huge Chinese resource company for a bribe.

Chinalco paid the politicians in Guinea bribes. All their young family are private school educated in China. Gifted properties abroad, Swiss bank accounts, whatever they want.

Rio Tinto cracked the sh**ts, and said good bye:

http://www.riotinto.com/media/media-releases-237_19886.aspx

China will milk Guinea, Zambia, Nigeria, Angola and eventually, any country with a resource they require, dry.

[alomas]

China is the enemy of the US. They want to extend their influence in the Pacific, hurting Japan, India and South Korea as well as stealing American intellectual property.

It isn't a country of my dreams. Yes, they are a big economic and military power but no wonder if you have 1.5 billion people and vast territory. A million people live in concentration camps and their record on human rights is abysmal.

[Santander]

Obviously a foe, but one deserving of respect for being the most enduring human creation.

[RINO Tom]

An enemy you should keep close.

[Del Tachi]

China is a big-time foe and represents a more existential threat to the United States than Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union ever did.  

An economically ascendant China is not, in-and-of itself, a threatening thing.  However, what makes China a massive threat is its rejection of Western standards of diplomatic and economic engagement that have dominated the world for the past 70 years.  China simply does not share the same values of transparency, fairness and due process that the West has sought to enshrine into the post-World War II global order.  For example, China routinely fails to make its trade directives available in languages other than Mandarin or prosecute intellectual property theft committed by Chinese citizens.  These basic standards are something that other ascendant economies - like post-WWII Japan - never sought to undue.  

If China's influence is allowed to continue to grow without the West offering an adequate counterweight, we will soon be living in a world that is less free and less safe.  The Chinese are currently spending $8 trillion to complete the BRI.  If global commerce cannot move without access to Chinese networks, then Chinese law and standards will gain ascendancy over the Western ideals.  The latent power of China was something that the United States realized shortly after Mao's modernization efforts, and Nixon's "opening" of China was an early move to bring the growing country into the Western consensus.  It was hoped that Chinese ascension to the WTO in 2000 would tie it to the same legal standards by which Western countries bound themselves, but it seems that international enforcement mechanisms have been too weak to contain the country.

The only way to stop China's rise is a recommitment by the West to the ideals it stated at the end of World War II.  However, the United States and other Western countries now seem less committed to these ideals than ever before.  Time is running out.  If Donald Trump wins a second-term in 2020 and Western institutions continue to be weakened from within, the world in 2030 will be a completely unrecognizable place.  A strong internationalist president elected in 2020 is probably our last chance to reassert the Western ideal, but both Trump and the Democrats seem less committed to this than ever.

Interesting side note:  China is a really big, really old country.  It has semi-mythical origins dating to the 21st Century BC, making it multitudes older than the Greco-Roman systems from which the present-day West derives the bulk of its identity and traditions.  Students of Chinese history and philosophy understand China as the world's oldest, most preeminent civilization and they're very proud of the fact.  The Chinese see the recent period of post-Columbian European global dominance as nothing more than a short historical aberration and they see the recent rise in China's global influence as a "revision to the mean" rather than a new world order.  I think this is important to remember when considering why China doesn't seek to conform to Western standards of economic and diplomatic engagement.