In his May 7 op-ed “An ancient trap awaits China and US,’’ Niall Ferguson proposes that the United States and China avoid the trap that swallowed England and Germany in World War I. Setting aside the absurd revisionism that defines the Great War by these two parties alone (remember Russia, France, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, etc.?), the author’s premise misses the fundamental point regarding our contemporary conflict.

This isn’t about competing visions of governance, law, or liberty; this is perhaps the greatest trade deal of all time. China discovered that it could embrace a Western-style market-based economy without absorbing its liberalism. In exchange, the United States and Europe are discovering that, despite decades of previous propaganda about the inextricable link between capitalism and freedom, we can have a market economy and authoritarian dominance by the few. This is the real deal, and with it, everyone in the world loses.

Jonathan Kranz

Ayer