This highrisk. hubristic. unilateral policy approach not only overestimates American power. but it is heedless of the moral and cultural nuances of the last 100 years of Chinese interaction with the outside world. It puts the policies of the United States at issue. rather than the sorry performance of the Government in Beijing. It risks triggering a xenophobic counterreaction by hardliners in Beijing. who will denounce these conditions as a humiliating ultimatum from a hostile foreign power. It is not without significance to this debate today that an authoritative February editorial in Chinas Peoples Dailyintended to signal support for bolder policies of reform and openingwas entitled "Opening Up to the Outside World and Making Use of Capitalism." The article stated that modern Chinese history shows that it "can only grow and prosper by making correct use of capitalism. not totally renouncing it. and by critically absorbing. not categorically rejecting. things in Western culture that could be useful to us." For those who believeas I dothat free economics drives free politics. can it possibly be rational to pass legislation today that. through miscalculation or design. undercuts the Chinese stepchildren of Adam Smith and allows a tightening of the reins of economic as well as political power by the discredited disciples of Marx. Lenin. and Mao?
Identified stereotypes
Suggests that Chinese hardliners are prone to xenophobic counterreaction.