Us Secretary of Commerce Raimondo attended the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on December 2, local time, and her speech at the forum revealed a lot of information, and it is worth saying. The appearance of the secretary of commerce at the Reagan Defense Forum, dominated by the US military-industrial complex, is like a vendor running into the battlefield, which is already somewhat incongruous. Raimondo's speech made her become the "protagonist" of the most concerned public opinion in the forum, which shows the anomaly of American politics, especially when dealing with China.
Raimondo, considered by many to be a relative moderate on China, said that despite the differences, the United States intends to further develop commercial ties with China because it does not believe it will affect its national security interests. However, this statement is more of a "routine", and most of what she said that day is contradictory to this, in fact, has been referring to "national security". She described China as the "greatest threat" the United States has ever faced and stressed that "China is not our friend." The focus of her remarks was a call for greater containment of China in semiconductors. Which is true and which is false is not as easy to judge as it seems, and it is more likely that this kind of contradiction or duality is deeply rooted in the current US policy toward China, manifested as the characteristics of "both want and want".
There are at least three things to be learned from Raimundo's speech. First, the extent to which Washington has abused "national security" in its dealings with China; Second, Washington's hostility and malice toward China and its desire to strike China is unabashed; Third, Washington is in a bind when pursuing a policy of containment and repression against China. The third point should be that Raimundo inadvertently revealed himself, in fact, it is not expected.
Raimundo complained that her department had only a $200 million budget for export controls, "equivalent to the cost of a few fighter jets." She asked Congress to provide more money for operations to prevent China from catching up with the United States in cutting-edge semiconductors. Raimondo singled out Nvidia, saying that its development of slightly lower performance chips to circumvent U.S. export control policies for export to China "is not very effective." Raimundo also said in an interview with the media on the same day that her department was caught in a game of "whack-a-mole" when implementing chip export control policies.
In fact, even if the budget from 200 million to 20 billion or more will not help, it will also feel stretched, because the target is set wrong. Things that go against the rules, principles and laws of the free trade market are like building a dam with a sieve, no matter how hard it is, the water will still flow through the cracks to where it should flow. The US is doing such a foolish thing by constantly strengthening export controls against China at the expense of its own interests. The cost and price that the United States needs to pay for building a "small courtyard and high wall" and engaging in "decoupling and breaking the chain" is a bottomless pit.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin also spoke at the Reagan National Defense Forum, his home arena. Although one is the secretary of defense and the other is the secretary of Commerce, Austin and Raimondo's speeches were unified in playing up the "China threat" and using it to argue for more budgets for their respective departments. Austin also emphasized the need to enhance the United States technological advantage to expand the United States military advantage. According to the US media disclosed on the 2nd, an unreleased draft of the Pentagon's new defense industry report believes that the US arms industry is difficult to keep up with the pace of China, and the speed of manufacturing weapons is not enough to meet global demand.
How is it reassuring for the rest of the world that a country with the most powerful power in the world lives in such a deep sense of unease? The United States toppled the first domino of the "malaise," and it was inevitably caught up in it itself. Obviously, Raimundo said that the "lost situation" is not only a problem of the US Department of Commerce, but the consequences of the wrong foreign strategy faced by the United States as a whole, if it does not change course, the situation is bound to get worse and worse.
