In a recent Opinion Column published by the South China Morning Post, Tom Plate a Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies at Loyola Marymount University Asia Media International Centre, states that:
- Former California governor Jerry Brown has turned his attention towards trying to improve US-China relations in the name of global stability
- For both countries to survive and thrive, they must find a way to cooperate as well as compete
“Governor Moonbeam” a nickname conferred on the flamboyant but still relevant Jerry Brown has turned 84 recently. He has the distinction of having served two 8-year terms as California’s Governor separated by almost 30 years (1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019).
The nickname appropriately describes his fondness for environmental advocacy or “planetary realism” as he prefers to call it. He has tirelessly promoted windmills, solar panels and many other leading edge green technologies while he was governing California.
His primary concern these days is the US-China relationship. He advocates a more sophisticated way to deal with China and says that he is truly scared because of deteriorating conditions. “The US insistence on confrontation and containment makes no sense and looks to be an approach slapped together less with malice aforethought than no thought at all”.
Brown says that current group-think on China is “based almost exclusively on zero-sum assumptions”, so alarming is that “very bright people with the best of intentions, no matter their party or ideology, get caught up in ‘rational’ processes that lead to disastrous outcomes”. He spotlights the contributions of Kevin Rudd who rejects the combustible brew of decoupling, containment and confrontation that might lead to “the unthinkable.”
Brown also calls attention to the views of economist C. Fred Bergsten, whose new book The United States vs China: The Quest for Global Economic Leadership breaks with establishment wisdom. He sums up Bergsten’s position as, “work together to stabilize the world economy or risk a disaster on par with the Great Depression of the 1930s”. Both countries need each other, like it or not.
Brown proposes a reform policy of planetary realism” in both geopolitical and ecological terms. The US should ask for China’s cooperation, with some humility.
Joel