Kathleen Setiawan

International Communication 16

Will the US and China head for a new Cold War? Judging by the statements and policies emanating from them, it is possible to say so.

The rising tensions between the US and China have become increasingly hostile since the pandemic emerged in the city of Wuhan and rapidly spread across the globe. Indeed, the crisis hasn't brought these nations together to face a common threat. It has merely given their sharpening rivalry a new field of competition and intensified the political tremors.

On the US side, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has taken a fresh aim at China. This past January, Pompeo called the CCP “the central threat of our times.” And for weeks Pompeo has continued working to brand the virus as a Chinese-created crisis. He insisted the G7 refer to the COVID-19 as ‘Wuhan virus’, and even urged the UN Security Council to condemn China for spreading the virus.

China’s propaganda has been no less intense. They pushed back against US criticisms over its early handling of the pandemic as “lunacy”. As well as spark conspiracy theories to blame the US Army for the virus outbreak, and repeatedly slammed Pompeo as an “enemy of mankind” and “morally repulsive.”

Same goes for President Donald Trump’s bitter denunciation of China that came not only after weeks of praising China for its “transparency,” “hard work” and “professionalism” in handling the outbreak but after it became clear that his administration’s slow response had failed to stem the pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 Americans. With just months to go until the elections, blaming China has become the president’s go-to foil to divert the attention from his administration’s failures.

As for China too, the escalating war of words with the US provides a cover for its own leadership’s failures. And after stemming the spread through a brutal lockdown, China’s new propaganda machine, the ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats have kicked into gear, taking over social media platforms to bite back at any criticism directed to China or the ruling Communist Party.

Yet, at the center, this rhetorical competition between the world’s largest political powers represents a growing division between them. The US is abandoning its longstanding view to integrate China into a Western, US-led world order. Even if few would go as far as Trump is threatening to cut off the entire relationship, there’s widespread agreement that the fight with China for global power should be a focus of American foreign policy.

And China appears to be game. After decades incorporating Deng Xiaoping’s orthodoxy to “hide your strength, bide your time, never take the lead,” China is telling the world that it’s taking a hardline and aggressive global stance. From Xi’s perspective, decoupling is not only an American threat; rather it’s the new Chinese strategy. It not only rejects US global leadership, but it seeks to replace it.

As China resonates with Xi's vows to "make China great again," it will inevitably encroach on rights and positions Americans have come to accept are “their own”. As Americans feel China seeping into what they have come to consider as their space, they will become increasingly alarmed about the competition and fight back. And although history suggests that such competition often leads to confrontation, this isn’t the case.

Whether we realize it or not, today's world economy is more intertwined than ever before, both economically, technologically, and even socially. And so, with deeply integrated markets and supply chains, the costs of decoupling the two economies will be wrenching and costly for all.

Perhaps most importantly, while the pandemic has deepened divisions, it has also underlined the truth of our reality, that the impacts of dire threats the world now face, from viruses to climate change, are truly worldwide. These problems require global solutions, not national solutions, and rather than confrontation these solutions should be based on cooperation.

We have to remember, too, the weapons accessible  now are unquestionably more dangerous than those centuries ago. This time, there will be no outside forces able to save the US and China from themselves. It is therefore crucial to have a higher level of global cooperation than ever if we are to manage our global commons.

And though at one point the Cold War did successfully divide the world into two camps. Today, the rest of the world shows little interest in taking sides. They want to work together to tackle global challenges, and they are looking toward the US and China to cooperate and lead in these global efforts.