Hoyt Purvis
Seemingly disparate issues have been featured in the news in recent days. They range from President Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, effectively abandoning America's Kurdish allies, to the heated controversy over NBA basketball business in U.S.-China relations and raising questions about free speech and human rights.
This all illustrates the importance of recognizing and understanding the highly complex and interdependent world context in which we live, despite some who want to see everything in simplified terms. There are figures in the present U.S. administration who favor seeing the world and today's turmoil as a matter of nationalism vs. globalization.
Individual nations can figure prominently in international relations, Ukraine being a notable current example. However, that prominence results from Ukraine's interconnections with others, particularly Russia and the United States.
Nationalism is unquestionably a powerful factor, but it shouldn't necessarily be viewed as isolationism or being cut off from the rest of the world. The current issues -- the NBA-China conflict and the withdrawal of American troops from northern Syria -- demonstrate the necessity of viewing developments in a broader context.
The status of the Kurds must be seen in relationship to Turkey, Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Israel, not to mention the United States. Trump's decision to leave Syria upended U.S. policy in the region, casting doubt on U.S. reliability, and allowing American adversaries to fill the void. The Assad regime strengthens its hold, Russia expands its influence, Iran gets greater freedom to provide weapons to its allies.
Turkey's attack on Syrian Kurds forced the besieged group to seek aid from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. With the U.S. pulling out, Syrian and Russian forces are vying for control of former American military bases that were used to carry out counter-terrorism efforts against ISIS.
Here's a sadly ironic example of globalization: A Russian reporter in a New York Yankees cap posted a video of an abandoned U.S. base in Syria, taken over by Russian and Syrian fighters. Dining hall refrigerators were still filled with cans of Coke and Pepsi. Kitchen shelves were loaded with bread, bagels and Kristy Kreme doughnuts.
Trump says, "Everybody is happy." But, for example, what about the Kurds, who see themselves as utterly betrayed? I seriously doubt the U.S. president's proclamation of happiness makes them happy.
It is true, as Trump has said, that Americans are weary of "endless wars." Some fervent Trump backers, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have strongly questioned the withdrawal, however. By abandoning the Kurds, "We have sent the most dangerous signal possible -- America is an unreliable ally and it's just a matter of time before China, Russia, Iran and North Korea act out in dangerous ways," Graham tweeted. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning the announced Syria withdrawal. There's fear in some quarters that a vacuum in the region could lead to a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at the Kurds.
The NBA-China controversy doesn't involve military conflict, but it does involve lots of money, and is another illustration of the extensive and intricate ties between the U.S. and China.
The NBA's escalating popularity began with the success of Yao Ming, the Chinese player who became an NBA star. He built a huge following during his NBA career. I recall walking down a bustling sidewalk in Shanghai one day 15 years ago when movement halted. What was drawing attention was a life-size promotional cut-out of the 7-foot, 6-inch Yao at the entrance to a McDonald's. That was one of many examples of the international spread of culture, sports and business. And it should be noted there are more than 2,000 McDonald's in China, plus 6,000 KFC outlets and a new Starbucks opening daily.
This recent dispute was set off by a tweet. China responded angrily to a tweet ("Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.") by Houston Rockets' general manager Daryl Morey, in support of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protestors. The message, originally on a website not even accessible in China, generated strong reaction there, where officials demanded Morey's firing and canceled broadcasts of games. China reportedly has at least 500 million NBA fans, far exceeding the total U.S. population. I saw an NBA exhibition game in China a few years ago and was impressed by the size of the crowd and interest in the sport.
After initially trying to calm China's reaction, the NBA, backed by many American public figures, took a hard line -- asserting freedom of expression, even in the face of China's tight control of communications. Some American NBA stars, beneficiaries of China's basketball craze, including super-star LeBron James, disagreed with the NBA position. James drew sharp criticism from Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, who urged all NBA executives and athletes "who claim to care about social justice" to speak out now "when the stakes are deadly high for millions of Hong Kongers."
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has made building economic ties with China a high priority and has had some success in attracting Chinese investment -- particularly if the $1.5 million Shandong Sun paper and pulp mill to be constructed near Arkadelphia proceeds.
The controversy over the NBA-China relationship underlines the complex and far-reaching nature of ties between the world's two largest economies. China's economic role has, of course, received major attention from the Trump administration, though positions and policies have at times been contradictory and confusing.
There are figures in the current U.S. administration who see all this as globalism vs. nationalism, viewing globalism as an ideology. But, as can be seen in big-bucks basketball or geo-political rivalries, or multilateral cooperation, globalization is a reality.
Commentary on 10/23/2019