The United States Is Entering A New Cold War — With China
Vice President Mike Pence recently laid out an aggressive new Trump administration policy on China, which could be heralded as a new cold war with China. In a long speech at the Hudson Institute, Pence said: “China’s aggression was on display this week, when a Chinese naval vessel came within 45 yards of the USS Decatur as it conducted freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea, forcing our ship to quickly maneuver to avoid collision. Despite such reckless harassment, the United States Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows and our national interests demand.”
The speech was one of the strongest by any American leader in the last decade, and included evidence that the Chinese state was manipulating and subverting the American system.
“America had hoped that economic liberalization would bring China into greater partnership with us and with the world,” he said. “Instead, China has chosen economic aggression, which has, in turn, emboldened its growing military.”
That was not all. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has taken up the cause of human rights in China, reflecting an increasingly bipartisan consensus among American policymakers that China isn’t liberalizing anytime soon ...
How unified are the American public behind this new cold war? What about large tech companies, which are more than happy to bend over backwards to appease China but refuse to side with the Pentagon?
In American society, the forces of civic nationalism are making a comeback. That is good, regardless of what liberal internationalists think, because the world itself is changing. It is better to be a conservative realist and nationalist than to be a utopian internationalist and be slapped in the face by reality.
The new National Security Strategy is a good start. It highlights the return of a great power rivalry, but it is for the wonks. Convincing common people of the incoming long era of strategic rivalry and the necessity of it remains a Churchillian task.
The speech was one of the strongest by any American leader in the last decade, and included evidence that the Chinese state was manipulating and subverting the American system.
“America had hoped that economic liberalization would bring China into greater partnership with us and with the world,” he said. “Instead, China has chosen economic aggression, which has, in turn, emboldened its growing military.”
That was not all. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has taken up the cause of human rights in China, reflecting an increasingly bipartisan consensus among American policymakers that China isn’t liberalizing anytime soon ...
How unified are the American public behind this new cold war? What about large tech companies, which are more than happy to bend over backwards to appease China but refuse to side with the Pentagon?
In American society, the forces of civic nationalism are making a comeback. That is good, regardless of what liberal internationalists think, because the world itself is changing. It is better to be a conservative realist and nationalist than to be a utopian internationalist and be slapped in the face by reality.
The new National Security Strategy is a good start. It highlights the return of a great power rivalry, but it is for the wonks. Convincing common people of the incoming long era of strategic rivalry and the necessity of it remains a Churchillian task.
