Washington Post Associate Editor and MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart issued a stark declaration on Friday’s “PBS Newshour.” He said that the United States and China are currently in the midst of a new cold war, and China is taking the role that the U.S. once had.
As an example, he noted the breakthrough deal restoring diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This type of agreement is something that was once in the realm of the U.S., but “now it’s the Chinese.”
New York Times columnist David Brook flatly stated that the U.S. and China are engaged in cold war. He also asserted that official Washington policy indicates the same thing.
Co-host Amna Nawaz asked Capehart, “Do you see it the same way? We’re in a cold war with China now?”
Capehart replied, “Well, when David puts it like that, yes. How could I argue?”
The world will split into West and East. The main thing is that the Earth itself does not split apart.
Kissinger: “The second cold war will be even more dangerous than the first”: Former US Secretary of State predicts that a cold war between the US and China is looming, and… pic.twitter.com/bwqIKoRRDk
— GraphicW (@GraphicW5) March 26, 2023
It was then that he noted the diplomatic victory achieved by Beijing in restoring formal relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Capehart observed that he is at an age where he remembers the U.S. being the arbiter of such international agreements.
The view that the two superpowers are locked in a cold war engagement is hardly uncommon. After the Washington failure in the Chinese spy balloon incident, many noted that the affair harkened back to the old espionage confrontations between the U.S. and USSR.
The Biden administration was put on notice by an outraged public after the aircraft was allowed to collect sensitive data for nearly a week. The abject security failure prompted many to assail the weakness displayed in allowing the balloon to continue on its spy mission for days.
And just last week, Chinese social media app TikTok’s CEO underwent a nearly six-hour grilling on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers from both parties peppered Shou Zi Chew with questions about the glaring security concerns presented by the platform.
Legislators wanted but received little clarification on the company’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The fact that there is a cold war between the U.S. and China is not news. It even has its own Germany-like flashpoint — Taiwan. It is there that tensions could boil over through Beijing’s aggression and transform a cold war into a globally dangerous hot war.
