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“One of the major casualties of the war on terror has been a strategic policy towards Asia,” argues Donald C. Hellman in a publication of the US Council on Foreign Relations. One might add that a united Western approach has also suffered. The White House’s recent decision to take the Sino-US conflict over movie and software piracy to the World Trade Organization is a good example.

President Bush did the only reasonable thing, given the circumstances: he bought himself some time. Quite a few economic hawks were elected to Congress on this issue, and these same hawks are now forcing Bush to act. There is common sentiment among Americans that China is to blame for the ballooning American trade deficit, and Congress is also beholden to an industry claiming billions in losses due to copyright infringement.

Copyright violations are indeed ubiquitous here in China, and any feeling of wrongdoing in this matter is just about nonexistent. Washington is constantly pressing Beijing to open its market to American films and books and to revalue its currency. Even the Chinese government must know that it won’t be able to sit out this problem much longer. But protectionism isn’t going to help the US economy in the long run. In fact, it might even hurt. If you’re suffering from a record trade imbalance, do you really want to make essential components like metal or semiconductors more expensive, thus rendering your cars, airplanes, and computers even less competitive in a global market?

So a lame duck administration has given in on an initiative that puts another burden on Sino-US relations. Meanwhile, the European Commission applauds a growing Chinese economy and promises “strategic partnership.” By going this one alone—again—the US has opened itself to a potential trade war it would have to fight alone. Once more, the West is proving to China and other rising powers that it lacks a united strategic plan on how to deal with a developing new world order.

While the Europeans generally agree with the United States on most China-related issues, their practical policies are focused mainly on exporting their technological products, with substantial success. Europe seems less concerned about China’s militarization or its notoriously strained relations with Japan. The Americans have more at stake: With American troops stationed in Asia, it is essential to support traditional allies like Japan and Pakistan while accommodating rising global powers like China and India. The US is also linked much more closely to Taiwan by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. Europe seems to treat China as just another country with an attractively large market, collectively and bilaterally. America tends to look at China from the perspective of a superpower trying to keep another emerging superpower at bay and a gigantic, strategically important region stable. If the US wants to avoid another disastrous attempt by the EU to lift the weapons embargo against China, it is time to get Europe on board.

Sonja Bonin is a freelance writer and translator from Germany. After living and working in the US for three years, she moved to Shanghai last year. She was a Fulbright grantee to Rutgers, New Jersey, and is co-editor of the online press digest Atlantic Review. Her translation of Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” into German is to be published by Schwarzer Freitag in May.

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• The Rise of China: A Brief Review of the Implications on the Transatlantic Partnership

• Carnegie Debate Series Opens Discussion on Human Rights in China

• Mei Ying Gechlik on China’s Intellectual Property Rights Balancing Act

• Daniel W. Drezner on The New New World Order