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As I see it | Why China and the US are denying their feud has become a new cold war
- Washington’s refusal to accept the narrative could be partly because it doesn’t want to be seen to be forcing allies and partners to take a side
- Beijing appears to have started preparing for a cold war by making changes to its official narrative on the nation’s development
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Beijing and Washington don’t agree on much, but both insist there is no new cold war.
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Yet that is how media and analysts have framed the US-China feud that has become increasingly acrimonious, especially since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Chinese President Xi Jinping denounced the “cold war mentality” last week at the Communist Party congress – words often used by Beijing to accuse Washington of trying to secure its hegemony at the expense of others.
It came weeks after US President Joe Biden unveiled a national security strategy that describes China as the “most consequential geopolitical challenge” to the United States and reaffirms the position that Washington is not seeking conflict or a new cold war.
The strategy lays bare Washington’s confrontational approach to Beijing – something akin to the US containment policy towards Moscow during the Cold War, except that the US does not “seek to transform China’s political system”, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken put it.
Biden’s assertion that the “post-Cold War era is definitely over” also raised eyebrows, seemingly acknowledging the end of America’s unipolar moment after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Washington’s refusal to openly accept the cold war narrative could be partly due to concern it might be seen to be forcing allies and partners to take a side.
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