America’s rivals and enemies have enjoyed a very good 10 days.
One clear beneficiary has been ISIS, which has spent years trying to persuade Muslims that the United States is at war with Islam. ISIS wants to eliminate the world’s “gray zone,” the places where Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Jews live in harmony.
No wonder that ISIS-affiliated social media gleefully posted President Trump’s executive order this weekend, as Rukmini Callimachi of The Times reported. Trump’s call for a Muslim ban, like his unsubtle attempt to implement one, plays right into ISIS’ desire to eliminate the gray zone. The president of the United States himself now seems to agree that Muslims and non-Muslims can’t live together.
Besides the immorality and apparent
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He has angered Iraq, France and others battling ISIS. He’s started a new argument in the Middle East, which long distracted the United States. Most alarmingly, he has undercut our claim to stand for larger principles — freedom, rule of law, even basic competence.
This undermining of both American values and interests has been an early theme of the administration. And the ultimate beneficiary is not likely to be ISIS. Although it poses serious threats, it is not a serious rival to the United States. The ultimate beneficiary is instead likely to be America’s biggest global rival: China.
China remains far less powerful than the United States. But it has come a long way. Its economic progress and its ambitions, combined with the size of its population, mean that China has become the world’s only other potential superpower.
Some degree of a rising China is inevitable — and welcome, given the continued reduction in poverty that will happen. The big unknown is whether China will change as it rises, to become freer and more respectful of the rule of law, or whether China will mold the rest of the world in its current closed and authoritarian