TOWNSHEND, VERMONT ¨C Three recent articles in The New York Times have signaled a ¡°new¡± narrative about China. Only weeks ago, China was America¡¯s fearsome ¡°peer competitor¡± on the world stage. But now, we are told, it is a wounded dragon. Once a threat by dint of its inexorable rise, now it poses a threat because it is in decline.
U.S. President Joe Biden set the terms of this new narrative. As The New York Times¡¯s Michael D. Shear reports, the White House now worries that ¡°China¡¯s struggles with high unemployment and an aging workforce make the country ¡®a ticking time bomb¡¯ at the heart of the world economy.¡± Biden warned that, ¡°When bad folks have problems, they do bad things,¡± but he did not explain how, exactly, unemployment and an aging population turn China into a threat.
For his part, Shear gives another reason for China¡¯s newfound decline: ¡°The president has moved aggressively to contain China¡¯s rise and to restrict its ability to benefit militarily from the use of technologies developed in the United States.¡± Given the scope of Biden¡¯s new semiconductor restrictions, he might have added ¡°and nonmilitarily as well.¡±
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