U.S. Supporters Of China Are Growing Skeptical About Beijing

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech during a high-level event in the Assembly Hall at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

SCMP: From doves to hawks: why the US’ moderate China watchers are growing sceptical about Beijing

* Constitutional amendment on presidential term limits as well as activity in the South China Sea have caused a shift in perceptions
* China’s ‘repression at home and aggression abroad’ have intensified the conflict with the US in recent years, observer says

As Beijing faces an uphill battle with China hawks in Washington, it is also losing support among moderate members of the policy community, including some of the most vocal advocates of engagement with China.

The discontent over Beijing’s assertive policies has grown beyond trade and investment to broader strategic and political areas, despite a divide over specific approaches US President Donald Trump’s administration has taken towards Beijing.

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WNU Editor: Being one who has live and worked in China since the 1980s, I can say this unequivocally. The China of today is not the China 30 years ago, and it is certainly not the China of ten years ago. President Xi has radically changed the country's foreign policy of being one to assert China has the dominant power in Asia, and it is willing to crack heads to do so. And as for trade,  promise one thing but do something else, and in the process disrupt trading patterns and understandings that have been the bedrock of international trade for decades. I am no longer skeptical of Beijing, I have become downright worried and pessimistic on where this is heading.