Well put.
Realists think like former US President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney who started the Perpetual War on Terror: "You are with us or you are against us."
By "you are with us", they mean literally the "US" - that you follow our lead, however, illiberal the policy may be, like the War on Terror.
Unfortunately Realism, rather than Liberalism, characterizes the dominant US foreign policy establishment. Mr.Bush and Cheney are not aberrations.
The exasperating thing for the US Realists or Realism about China is that it continues to grow strong and prosperous without committing to the bargain: You are with us.
It continues to grow strong and prosperous without the Communist Party losing power to capitalist (neoliberal) oligarchs more subservient to US capital interests and amenable to US influence and control. It shows real independence of national interest.
And with OBOR, China may wean the little countries off dependence on our aid, the World Bank, and IMF and possibly make them be no longer "with us," directly resulting in the possible decline of influence and access to the US national interests (military, political, and economic influence, access, and control).
That is what we (American Realists) fear. That is a good part why China must be against us, and we must see China as a mortal threat. And so we drum up another Propaganda War and take steps to Isolate China.
The other is that with this growing prosperity, theyare wisely investing in further growth and increased military power and minimizing waste going to bribery and corruption, the bane of many third world "Bana republics" development that sell their sovereignty to the highest foreign bidder or the World Bank/IMF.
We in the US have not yet taken to heart Jack Ma's criticism: We waste billions on endless wars and not on investing in our citizens (who are increasingly homeless or otherwise becoming poor).
Maybe one reason is that as George W. Bush said, "Wars are profitable."
What he may not realize is that wars are also theft by other means, both upon the target nation of war but also on the domestic population who must sacrifice to wage that war...
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