British paper cautions against US lack of debate on China policy

LONDON - US policymakers' consensus on their China policy lacks opposition and examination, which is worrisome, a British newspaper has said.

"The US is riven -- it has managed to politicize the workaday face-mask -- but it avoids the equal and opposite danger of unreflective consensus. Except, that is on the most momentous policy of the century," said an article published in the Financial Times on Wednesday.

It added that the United States has slid into a country which has open conflict with China with "eerily little debate." In his campaign ads, Democratic candidate Joe Biden only criticized President Donald Trump for its soft stance toward China, but their policies on China are similar.

Even inside the Democratic camp, there is little qualms about the country's China policy. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for the White House to act tough on tariff with China.

The article said that the conflict between a surging power and an established one is inevitable, but it is possible to "feel unnerved by the lack of public deliberation and prominent dissenters."

The absence of dissenting voices now is "disconcerting. For it means that policy is not being refined and stress-tested through argument," it said.

Even judging by the standards of an election year, "the reluctance to say anything construable as 'soft'" should be heeded as America's advantage lies in the raucousness of its public discourse.

However, on the China question, "it is troublingly civilized," it said.