Are We in A Cold War with China?

Relationships between nations can be strange. During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies fighting together against the Axis powers. However, there was tension in the relationship because Americans were wary of communism and Russians resented the U.S. for its delay in entering the war. About 1946 or 1947 -- soon after the end of World War II -- the grievances between the United States and Russia ripened into mutual distrust and enmity.

The Cold War between the United States and Russia lasted for more than half of my life. There were periods when the Cold War would heat up but then would cool down. There were lots of threats of a hot war – such as the Cuban Missile Crisis during the Kennedy administration, but the war stayed cold enough to protect the peace of the world.

Soviet influence grew in Eastern Europe and then waned. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan spoke at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and issued a challenge: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” “In 1989, every other communist state in the region replaced its government with a noncommunist one.” By November 1989, the Berlin Wall was destroyed. “By 1991, the Soviet Union itself had fallen apart. The Cold War was over.” 

Many Americans are now concerned about a war with China as that nation flexes its muscles in the world. The political class does not recognize China’s relationship with the United States as anything besides competition. However, Former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger believes differently.

Pottinger testified at a recent congressional hearing on China that things are not as the politicians would like us to believe. Even though America seeks peace and cooperation with China, “it does us little good to repeat again and again that we aren’t seeking a new Cold War with the [Chinese Communist Party] has been stealthily waging one against us for years.”

Andrew J. Harding, a research assistant in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, recently published an article in The Daily Signal about America’s relationship with China. He agreed with Pottinger assessment that China has been at war with America for years. 

It is time to acknowledge a simple reality: The Chinese Communist Party, both through its words and actions, has made it clear that it intends to overtake the United States and restructure the global order in its image.

The People’s Republic of China has viewed the U.S. as a strategic rival and long ago deployed cold war tactics against us, even as America opened its economy and its borders in a misguided engagement strategy.

The Heritage Foundation recently published a special report, “Winning the New Cold War: A Plan for Countering China.” The report “recognizes that China is an adversary and that the U.S. has entered a new cold war, though it will differ in important ways from the last one. China is, in some ways, a more capable adversary than the USSR ever was.” Harding continued with the following:

A cold war is defined as a “condition of rivalry, mistrust, and often open hostility short of violence,” generally applying to two global powers locked in an escalating rivalry across multiple domains – economics, technology, diplomacy, geopolitics – but absent direct military conflict.

“Winning the New Cold War” assesses the current situation between the U.S. and China and offers specific policy recommendations to deal with China’s increasing threat. The report consists of three parts.

Part I examines the state of the China-U.S. rivalry and the respective strengths and weaknesses of both countries….

In Part II, the report examines 48 fault lines within U.S.-China relations and offers over 100 specific policy recommendations meant to protect the homeland, secure and advance U.S. prosperity, reorient America’s defense posture, diminish the Chinese Communist Party’s influence and hold it accountable for its actions, and help the United States exercise global leadership….

In Part III, the special report examines steps necessary to implement the plan. It emphasizes cooperation and coordination between the executive and legislative branches, federal agencies and law enforcement, state and local governments, U.S. allies and partners, and the private sector.

Harding closes his article by reminding his readers that the “Chinese Communist Party has made it clear that it intends to restructure the global order in its image and its does not intend to let the United States stand in its way.” He explained, “Avoiding this fate will require a comprehensive plan of action, including going on the offensive to hold the People’s Republic of China accountable, diminish its capacity to harm the U.S., and win the New Cold War.” According to Harding, “America’s very future depends on” succeeding at the task as presented.

As I see it, America is already at a disadvantage because we have the Biden family who have been doing business with people in China connected to the communist party. We are in the beginning stages of discovering if President Joe Biden is compromised, and if he has sold America to China. The fact that hundreds of Chinese nationals are now crossing into the United States through our unsecured border does not bode well for us.