Thus, a more nuanced view may realize that the “sky is actually not falling,” and there is no reason to panic regarding the current trajectory of the U.S. Navy building program vis-à-vis Chinese naval development. Those like Fanell, who tend to see a raunchy and even diabolical panda everywhere they look, are rather clearly unable to make the cognitive leap from the (all too brief) unipolar world into the evolving new multipolarity. They apparently cannot accept that multipolarity may actually more faithfully support a stable, genuine balance of power, while perhaps also providing enormous growth potential for the world economy as Beijing facilitates trade corridors across Eurasia and well beyond. The unfortunate problem with stacking such an important Congressional panel with known “China hawks” is that the resulting assessments are only likely to fuel the rivalry dynamics that are already undermining the reasonably positive opportunities suggested above. There is simply no escaping the truism that if we treat China like an enemy, then it is most likely to emerge as an enemy.

Lyle J. Goldstein is Research Professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) at the United States Naval War College in Newport, RI. In addition to Chinese, he also speaks Russian and he is also an affiliate of the new Russia Maritime Studies Institute (RMSI) at Naval War College. You can reach him at [email protected]. The opinions in his columns are entirely his own and do not reflect the official assessments of the U.S. Navy or any other agency of the U.S. government. This article is being republished due to reader interest. 

Image: Reuters.