The hopeless fault-finder Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The Associated Press (AP) recently revealed that the US government is preparing to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to "counter China's growing influence around the world." Internal documents obtained by AP show that the initiatives include spending over $340 million globally on more than 50 specific anti-China projects; allocating $175.8 million to replace undersea communications cables in the Caribbean and Central America to prevent China from "moving in"; establishing security operations centers in Argentina and Belize to monitor Chinese overseas projects; restarting programs in South American countries to prevent Chinese "infiltration"; developing proprietary communications technology to interfere in Tibet-related affairs; and boycotting the export of "surveillance and censorship technologies" by Chinese companies, among others.

Although the documents obtained by the US media do not detail the specific measures, a closer examination reveals that the projects generally fall into three categories: physical infrastructure "replacements," the deployment of intelligence and surveillance networks, and the "blockade" of values and technical standards. They all share a single goal: to pre-emptively plant "landmines" in any area where potential cooperation with China might arise, and construct a media narrative trap that "China is untrustworthy," thereby severing normal economic, trade, and technological ties between China and other countries. The underlying logic remains rooted in a Cold War mindset and hegemonic mentality driven fundamentally by strategic anxiety in the face of China's unstoppable development.

The AP noted that many of the newly disclosed projects had previously been halted during Elon Musk's efforts to streamline federal agencies last year. According to a report released by the US government audit department this June, between 2020 and 2023, the US government spent approximately $1.2 billion supporting 470 anti-China projects, which suffered from chaotic management, lack of professionalism, duplicate and erroneous project information, and missing data - with no way to evaluate whether they produced any actual results. Throwing another couple hundred million dollars into the mix now will do little more than allow a group of bureaucrats and contractors to feast on another round of the "anti-China gravy train." Such initiatives - which defy the objective laws of globalization and stand on the wrong side of global public opinion - are not only meaningless, but ultimately doomed to fail.

The flip-flopping in US policy - from "halting" these initiatives to "restarting" them - stems from internal departments and forces failing to translate the crucial common understandings reached by the two heads of state into concrete action. Consensus reached by state leaders must be cherished and executed without compromise, rather than merely spoken of or left on paper while different actors go their own way at the implementation level. Only in this way can China-US relations break free from the vicious cycle of recurring instability and truly benefit the people of both nations and the world.