Chen Yong
After the U.S. Vice President Pence delivered a strong criticism of China, the mainstream Western media exclaimed that China and the United States were about to or have already broke out.The New York Times said the day when Burns gave a lecture, and thought it was a sign of the New Cold War.The Washington Post pointed out that the United States is launching a new cold war against China under Trump's governance.
In addition to the mainstream media in the United States, the Guardian Financial Times, and Mingjing Weekly important Western media, they have also joined the discussion of the Sino -US New Cold War.
Famous policy analysts such as Faleed Zakaria (Fareed Zakaria) began to evaluate Sino -US relations based on the New Cold War.For a while, the New Cold War became a new label for Sino -US relations in people's eyes.
Although Western media and international strategic circles are discussing the topic of the Sino -US New Cold War, the lack of logical and factual support for the New Cold War of China and the United States is untenable.The US strategic community also basically does not recognize and does not accept the new Cold War.
For example, Richardot; Richard Nathan Haass, President of the US Foreign Relations Association, believes that the New Cold War is the possible consequence of the deterioration of Sino -US relations, not a strategic choice.
The Cold War was first of all ideological confrontation, and there was no ideological confrontation between China and the United States.At present, competition between China and the United States is beyond the economic field, spreading in the fields of technology, finance, and military, and Sino -US confrontation has also tended to intensify and comprehensively.
However, the United States and Chinese governments are unintentional at present and cannot provoke two ideological confrontations between capitalism and socialism.In fact, the Trump administration has not yet denied China's social value system, and China has not criticized the American social lifestyle.Without an ideological confrontation, competition between China and the United States should not be named the name of the New Cold War.
China and the United States cannot confront the two major systems.During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union relied on the Northern Atlantic Convention and the two major economic groups of the two major military alliances and economic development and cooperation organizations (formerly known as the European Economic Cooperation Organization) and the Economic Mutual Aid Commission to carry out comprehensive military and economic confrontation.
Although the United States is currently adjusting the military alliance to check and balance China, China has no willingness and capabilities to organize a military alliance to organize a military confrontation with the United States -led multinational groups.
In the context of globalization, it is difficult for China to form an economic system to fight against the world economic system led by the United States after World War II.The Trump administration does not want to abandon the US -centered economic system with the United States, but to modify its rules based on the principles of the United States priority and reshape the world economic order.
It can be said that as long as the systemic confrontation of military and economy does not occur, the competition and confrontation between China and the United States are far from the New Cold War.
In addition to logically inconsistent with the Cold War, the current Sino -US competition is limited and restrained.After the trade war, the price of Sino -US confrontation rose, and the arguments of mutual accusations were also raising.However, both governments are working hard to control contradictions in the economy and trade field, and officials of the two countries are denying the new Cold War between China and the United States.
Pence's speech concentrated the hostility of the Trump administration to China.However, these criticisms and accusations are said by vice presidents instead of the president, symbolic significance is greater than policy significance.
This speech is more suitable as part of Trump's pressure on China, because the U.S. government announced a week later that Trump and Chinese President leaders will meet at the Group of the 20th Group of Twenty to trade Sino -US tradeConflict finds the way out.
It should be noted that although China and the United States are accusing each other, they avoid touching sensitive issues.The Trump administration has been complaining and accusations in China, but has not challenged the Chinese Communist Party's governing status, does not deny China's socialist system, and has no national leaders who attacked China.
Similarly, China's official agencies and media have not questioned the legitimacy of the Trump administration, and they have not attacked Trump.Books that are currently selling in the United States, which are presented to Trump's negative image, are not allowed to introduce and publish in China.
The current restraint between China and the United States is very different from the attack and slander of the social system, government legality and leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.In particular, Reagan's political jokes about Soviet Union left a deep impression on people.
Based on the above reasons, there is no new Cold War in China and the United States, but the statement of China and the United States that may have erupted the new Cold War, but under the leadership of Western public opinion, it has gradually become a new understanding of Sino -US relations.
For China, this is a bit like a trap.
The meaning of the New Cold War is that China is challenging the global leadership of the United States. Once China recognized and accepted the concept of the New Cold War, it is equivalent to challenging the identity of the American amendment country.China will be very passive in the United States, and its international image will be very negative.
Therefore, many media and analysts assert that the new Cold War between China and the United States lacks a basis, and this discourse trap is also unfair to China.
If international public opinion has always rendered the Sino -US New Cold War, then the negative public opinion of continuous fermentation will not only help alleviate the current tense Sino -US relations, but may promote a more intense confrontation between China and the United States.
The author is an assistant researcher at the Institute of International Issues of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
