America’s Cold Warriors Hold the Key to Handling China
The West needs a plan like it had against the Soviet Union.
Fully armed.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
At times of great global upheaval, policymakers often reach for familiar historical analogies to help them make sense of an uncertain future. Consider the debate over whether the deepening confrontation between the U.S. and China constitutes a “new Cold War.”
It is a marker of how quickly the U.S.-China relationship has deteriorated that commentators are invoking the analogy. Only three years ago, President Barack Obama observed that the U.S. had more to fear from a weak, failing China than a strong, confident China. Now, the critical question is not whether that relationship is fated for rivalry, but how deep, enduring and dangerous the rivalry will be.