US And China’s Relations Plunged And Leaders Fear A New Cold War Is Brewing

The U.S. and China’s relations plummeted in recent weeks and the increasing tension is threatening the global economy and division in the world. As this is happening, experts are issuing a warning that this could lead to a new Cold War.

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have waged a bitter war of words over the coronavirus pandemic and it already came to a point when the U.S. president said that his government will cut off the whole relationship with China. Clete Willems, a former White House trade negotiator, said that the two powerful countries are actually at the start of a new Cold War already.

“The reality is that tensions between the United States and China are rising considerably at the moment,” Willems, told CNBC. “I know people get uncomfortable with the terminology, but I do think we have to be honest and call this what it is and this is the start of a new Cold War and if we’re not careful, things could get much, much worse.”

Apparently, the relationship between the two countries was already sitting close to the edge of the cliff prior to the coronavirus pandemic and when it struck, the ties have been pushed it right off. If the cold war continues due to bad relations, it will affect the whole world not just economically but almost every aspect especially the security of nations.

"We are on a downward slide into something increasingly adversarial with China." Orville Schell, the director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society, told Insider. "The consequences of the breakdown in US-China relations is going to be very grave for the world and for the global economy because the ability of the US and China to work together was the keystone of the whole arch of globalization and global trade. With that pulled out, there's going to be a tremendous amount of disturbance."

The new cold war comes after the U.S. and China fought in a trade war where the Trump administration put hefty tariffs on goods from Xi Jinping’s country. Now, the fighting is starting again because both are hurling hunting words after claiming that COVID-19 could have been avoided if not for the alleged neglect.

Issues also arose when America started blaming China for the spread of the infection. The Trump government suggested that the contagion around the world happened because the Chinese tried to “hide the truth” about COVID-19. Beijing called such accusations as irresponsible and short-sighted.

Newsweek opined that in this coming cold war, the U.S. is likely to be defeated because China has been handling the COVID-19 pandemic well and may nations have praised Xi Jinping for this whereas Donald Trump is said to be handling the crisis badly. Lastly, China is not yet a "peer power" but it has the advantage over America because of its accumulated know-how on quantum-based technologies that can be used in case of war.