At a commemorative event on February 6, 2023, the invited former U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger answered a question, how to address the global challenge, especially how to win a contest with China?
Faced with this question, which is already a difficult problem of the century for the United States, the veteran strategist only replied with three words "cohesion" out of the summary of the times.
At present, the United States is torn apart by domestic consumption, but China is advancing its development at a steady pace, and Kissinger's answer directly points to the problems of the United States and also shows China's advantages.
There were no tactics such as warship containment, technical blockade, and diplomatic alliance. Instead, he analyzed the United States itself. What exactly does he mean by "cohesion"? How does it decide the outcome?
The US crack.
In the past decade, the internal out-of-control trend has become increasingly apparent.Politically, the two major parties do not tolerate each other, the system has become a game tool, and public affairs have become voting codes.
Ordinary people's trust in politics is declining, and Congress's legislative efficiency has been repeatedly blocked. Some policies are not impossible to do, but are unwilling to compromise.
This tear does not only exist in TV debates, it has penetrated into the lives of ordinary people.
A person who makes a comment on the Internet can quickly be labeled as "left" or "right", and the exchange of different opinions becomes attacking each other. In this social atmosphere, it is almost a luxury to form a consensus.
The problems at the economic level are more complicated, with the 2008 financial crisis being a breakdown, after which the U.S. government plunged massive funds to rescue financial institutions and saved Wall Street, but failed to change the fate of ordinary families.
Many middle-class people watch their hard-working decades of assets shrink, jobs are difficult to find, and mortgages are difficult to repay, while financial institutions quickly regain profitability and continue to give bonuses to executives.
This unbalanced situation has caused many people's trust in the system to waver.
In recent years, the Federal Reserve has taken a continuous policy of raising interest rates in response to high inflation, trying to control prices with austerity, but this logic is costly for ordinary people.
Financing for small and medium-sized enterprises has become difficult, mortgage interest rates have soared, and the job market has begun to tighten.
Meanwhile, some large capital groups have taken the opportunity to expand their market shares, and those companies that had already held the resources, instead, do bigger and bigger in the crisis.
These phenomena are superimposed together, making more and more Americans feel that the "American Dream" is moving away.
The social model that once emphasized equality of opportunity and upward flow, now seems to have lost momentum, social cracks become deeper and cohesion is naturally more and more difficult to find.
Stability in China
Compared with the United States, China's development path is more stable. It's not that there are no problems, but that when faced with problems, the whole society can always quickly form a joint force and find a solution in some way.
This ability actually comes from a collective consciousness that is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In China, the relationship between the state and the individual is not two completely opposing concepts, but intertwined.
Many people may not speak well, but when faced with disasters, difficulties or emergencies, they are willing to cooperate, support, and believe.This trust is notined by propaganda, but gradually built in a crisis.
Looking back at the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, almost the whole country moved. From the People's Liberation Army to volunteers, from local governments to ordinary people, everyone was trying to save, transfer and rebuild people.
This is not a unified action ordered, but a collective response.
In the epidemic period, although the difficulties faced were more complex, similar mobilization mechanisms once again played a role. Whether it is community prevention and control or nucleic acid testing, the efficiency of organizational mobilization far exceeds that of many developed countries.
This state of "twisted into one rope" is supported by cultural traditions and guaranteed by institutional arrangements.
Traditional culture emphasizes the ideology of good and good, the view of the country, these ideas, although they look old, but in reality have a strong real support.People are willing to sacrifice personal interests in exchange for general stability, this value is evident in times of crisis.
In addition, China's economic development has not been completely left to the market to "self-regulate", but has always emphasized the role of the government in resource allocation.
Especially in terms of social security, public services, poverty alleviation, etc., the state continues to invest in trying to narrow the gap between rich and poor.This approach to a certain extent reduces social anxiety and also improves the sense of safety of ordinary people.
Therefore, China's "cohesion" is not built up by a certain policy, but is the result of a systematic structure.
It comes from cultural, institutional, and social organizational abilities, which are often more crucial in international competition than technological breakthroughs.
The confidence gap.
The U.S. is facing a crisis of trust, with not only the relationship between the government and the people getting cold, but even the confidence inside the financial system starting to shake.
In 2023, the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank made people realize that even the technology industry’s “Golden Master” was not relentless.
Savers panic, stock market shocks, and the emergency of regulators, but the shock caused by the whole incident is far more than the bankruptcy.
The problem is not that banks have collapsed, but that people are starting to doubt whether the whole system can still stand up to the risks, and that financial credit that was once built on institutional trust is now becoming more and more fragile.
In contrast, China's response mechanism appears to be more resilient.
When some local financial institutions encounter risks, regulatory authorities often quickly intervene and adopt methods such as custody, capital injection, and reorganization to prevent the spread of problems.
Although this approach is not always perfect, it can at least stabilize the situation and avoid systemic collapse.
More importantly, the people's overall trust in the government remains high. Even in the face of complex situations, there has been no large-scale panic or social chaos.
This trust is part of national governance capabilities and is also a core component of “cohesion”, and Kissinger emphasized “cohesion” in fact to see such a gap.
In these aspects of technology, finance, diplomacy, the competition between China and the United States has always existed, but what really determines the future trend is whether a country can unite at a critical moment, rather than consuming each other.
conclusion
Kissinger’s answer was striking because he did not avoid questions and did not give an acceptable answer.
He did not say that the U.S. needed more missiles, more chips, or a stronger alliance, but instead reminded the U.S. to solve its own internal problems first.
The Chinese-American competition is not a short run, but a long-term game, rather than the leadership of a moment, but the endurance of the structure, who can be more stable, who can go further.
Cohesion is not an abstract word, but whether a country can shoulder and walk together when facing difficulties.
At this point, China has demonstrated its capabilities with practical actions, and if the United States really wants to “win”, it must first sew up the torn society.
Kissinger has gone through a century and has seen too many ups and downs. The "cohesion" he said is not a praise for China, but a reminder to the United States.
reference
Kissinger: In response to today's global challenges, the United States lacks cohesion Observer Network 2023-02-07