Peter Thiel believes we need less wishful thinking around China. The entrepreneur and investor fielded questions at an April 7 Nixon Foundation event on the threats of the Chinese communist state towards America and the Western world, and spoke on what can be done to counter them.
Thiel listed the threats that Xi Jingping’s government poses, ranging from intellectual property theft, cyber espionage, technologically advanced superweapons, the takeover of Hong Kong and the potential takeover of Taiwan, democratic disruption, hostage diplomacy, trade wars and tariffs, authoritarian applications of artificial intelligence and other advanced surveillance technology, infiltration of Western universities, corruption of international organizations, human rights violations and an ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, growing soft-power dominance over developing countries caught in infrastructure debt traps, and even efforts at propagating crypto-currencies so as to undermine the power of the American dollar as the world’s reserve.
That’s quite a bit to be worried about, yes, but Thiel is optimistic overall.
Parity between China and America means a losing struggle for America given China’s population advantages, he said. But, he believes that the Chinese government’s brazen ambitions and irresponsible conduct have isolated it. In the event of a major conflict, there would be few nations willing to stand by the “profoundly uncharismatic” China or support its continued consolidation of power.
