Hawley: Counter China's Plans for Dominance by Ending ‘Forever Wars’

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote on Tuesday that the only way America can counter Chinese domination is to end the “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hawley said that the United States has focused more on the response to the coronavirus outbreak than the country’s engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, he charged that America cannot respond to the Chinese Communist Party’s plans for “domination” by remaining involved in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is currently taking a backseat to the #COVID19 crisis, but let’s remember, the only way we are going to be able to focus on #China and counter Beijing’s plans for domination is to end the forever wars,” Hawley wrote. “Can’t have it both ways.”

The Missouri populist’s commentary follows as he said that the country must remain “laser-focused” on preventing Chinese “domination.” He said that this proposal will involve revamping America’s military posture towards countering an increasingly aggressive China.

Hawley said this week:

China understands that the global pandemic is an inflection point. They are trying to turn this to their advantage. Make no mistake, they are still pursuing their global strategic ambitions. The need for us to laser focus on China’s economic and military ambitions is going to be more urgent once we beat this pandemic, not less.

Hawley’s commentary echoes his foreign policy vision, which he unveiled in November 2019 at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). The senator’s foreign policy vision would replace the bipartisan foreign consensus that he called “progressive universalism” with a foreign policy that would benefit the interests of the American working class.

Hawley said that the “burden of this nation’s long wars had fallen disproportionately” on middle-class families.

He said during his CNAS speech that instead of engaging in further conflict in the Middle East, America should counter a rising and increasingly imperialist China, which threatens the freedom of those in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He added that China has increasingly deployed soft power to pressure American corporations such as Disney and the NBA to “throw overboard free speech at the first sign of Beijing’s commercial pressure.”

Hawley said that “the point of American foreign policy should not be to remake the world, but to keep Americans safe and prosperous.”