Kurt M. Campbell and Jake Sullivan
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these values for their own sake, not to score points in the context o
U.S.-Chinese competition. As China’s presence around the world
grows, the United States should avoid a tendency that was all too
common during the Cold War: to see third countries only in terms o
their relationship to a rival government. Some o the Trump admin-
istration’s policies—such as invoking the Monroe Doctrine in Latin
America and delivering an address on Africa that is largely about
countering China—echo this old approach. A tack that intentionally
engages states on their own terms would do more to advance American
interests and values than knee-jerk responses to Chinese initiatives
that leave states feeling that Washington cares about them only as
battlegrounds in its competition with Beijing.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative oers the most obvious opportunity
to apply this principle in practice. Rather than ¿ght China at every
turn—on every port, bridge, and rail line—the United States and its
partners should make their own armative pitch to countries about
the kinds o high-quality, high-standard investments that will best
serve progress. Supporting investments not because they are anti-
Chinese but because they are pro-growth, pro-sustainability, and pro-
freedom will be much more eective over the long term—especially
because China’s state-led investments have provoked a degree o
backlash in countries over cost overruns, no-bid contracts, corruption,
environmental degradation, and poor working conditions.
In this light, the best defense o democracy is to stress the values that
are essential to good governance, especially transparency and account-
ability, and to support civil society, independent media, and the free Çow
o information. Together, these steps could lower the risk o democratic
backsliding, improve lives in the developing world, and reduce Chinese
inÇuence. This course o action will require an injection o multilateral
funding from the United States and its allies and partners that can give
countries genuine alternatives. But it will require something more fun-
damental, too: the United States needs to have greater con¿dence in the
belie that investing in human capital and good governance will work out
better over the long run than China’s extractive approach.
Focusing on principles rather than scorekeeping will also be essential
for setting norms for new technologies that raise hard questions about
human ethics. From arti¿cial intelligence to biotechnology, autonomous
weapons to gene-edited humans, there will be a crucial struggle in the
years ahead to de¿ne appropriate conduct and then pressure laggards to