Rahm Emanuel pitches an economic coalition against ‘isolator’ China | Semafor

Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan and a longtime Democratic politician, says his country should apply lessons from the Cold War to its global competition with China.

Emanuel, a leading Biden administration critic of China, said in an interview with Semafor that the US and its allies should form a new coalition to deter what he describes as China’s “economic coercion,” “mercantilism,” and “debt-trap diplomacy” against countries in Asia, Africa and beyond. The idea, which Emanuel laid out in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, would involve the US and allies forming a trade-defense coalition backed by a NATO-like pledge in which countries agree to come to the economic aid of another if it is the target of a Chinese pressure campaign.

“There was a lot of bump and grind in the 70-year period of the Cold War, but I would say to you that our economic statecraft, our political statecraft, our security statecraft was more aligned and more integrated than you can say we are today,” Emanuel told Semafor in a phone interview. While he resisted the notion that the US is in a Cold War with China, he added: “I think there are lessons to be drawn from the Cold War of how you create coherence to your deterrence.”

Emanuel insisted that he’s also not calling for an “Asian NATO,” an idea that has been raised by new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Emanuel said he believes that the US has succeeded in isolating China through security and diplomatic partnerships, but he argues America’s economic strategy as it relates to pushing back on China needs work.

“We’ve been pretty effective as a counterbalance against China, and as I say, China the isolator becomes isolated,” he said. “Now, all I’m saying is, we’ve got to get the economic statecraft up to par with what we’re doing on the security front, what we’re doing on the political/diplomatic front.”