Should morality inform foreign policy?

When it comes to America's feud with China, sentiment-driven behavior won't improve things

Xi Jinping.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

"Taiwan is a country!"

Last month, the declaration propagated across social media in response to John Cena's groveling apology for referring to the island nation as such during a promotional interview for his film, Fast and Furious 9. The spectacle of this American action star — cultured, informed, and educated (Cena speaks Mandarin), and also bristling with muscles — abasing himself to appease the prickly Chinese regime crystalized the danger that regime increasingly poses to American norms of free speech.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.