The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China

by Kevin Rudd

Xi was further emboldened by the Trump administration’s wholesale assault on the multilateral system, its defunding of the UN, and its effective withdrawal from a number of UN bodies and Bretton Woods institutions. This included a reduction in annual US funding for the UN, including a whopping $1.05 billion that the US continued to owe in unpaid dues. Meanwhile, the US withdrew or began the process of withdrawing from multiple UN agencies and initiatives, including the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC); the UN Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It also crippled the World Trade Organization’s dispute-resolution machinery through its refusal to appoint new members of the WTO’s appellate body. China’s leaders probably couldn’t believe their luck that the US had willingly—indeed willfully—created a political, diplomatic, and financial vacuum in the very system that America itself created back in 1944–1945. And China was more than happy to occupy the ensuing institutional space with minimal public fanfare.