Weblog with daily updates of the news on a frugal, fair and beautiful China, from the perspective of internet entrepreneur, new media advisor and president of the China Speakers Bureau Fons Tuinstra
Many observers wrongly see the current trade war between China and the US as a Cold War 2.0, says political analyst Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® in an interview with Dwarkesh Patel. If American politicians started this war without seeing the difference from a cold war, it might be tough to bring it to an end, he adds.
Does public opinion matter in an authoritarian country such as China, where there is no democratic voting system? The answer is yes, even though the correlation between public opinion and government decision-making is perhaps less strong compared to that of the US. There have been suggestions that Xi sharpened his rhetoric because he didn’t want to be seen as weak by the people of China.
The Chinese government does respond to public opinion as it cares about its political legitimacy, as shown in its sudden abandonment of its zero-Covid policy. The increasingly negative public views of the US could encourage its leaders to take a harder line against the US. This vicious circle is dangerous as the dramatic deterioration of the relationship will not be good for either country.
Disturbing as it is to see views of China in the US resembling those of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, I am not surprised as American politicians often lump Russia and China together. The difference between China and the Soviet Union is as wide as that between heaven and earth, though.
China watcher and CFR-scholar Ian Johnson opens a roundtable conference at the National University of Singapore on the question whether the world is heading for a new cold war, now the tensions between China and the USA have not diminished after the US president Joe Biden took over from Donald Trump.
