The New Cold War: US-China Tensions and the Reshaping of the Global Order

Abstract

In recent years the form of relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China regarded by many as a “New Cold War.” This paper aims at examining the major areas of conflict constitutes this animosity focusing on economic rivalry, clash of political ideology, and geopolitical rivalry. The rivalry between these two superpowers is recreating the world order, affective nearly all aspects, including trade, innovation, defense, and the pattern of international organizations. In a similar manner, the given paper also outlines the prospect for the United States and china identifying if collaboration is feasible while rivalry. This paper tends to fully agree with the statement that economic competition is a decisive factor in relations between the United States and China. The technological advancement especially in the Asian countries such as China which has recorded a high rate in economic growth is threatening the dominance of America. Areas like business relations and trade, piracy, and SOEs are viewed by the US as unfair means that China uses. Political-wise, the US and China are in sharp contrast as the former is a democracy with emphasis on human rights while the latter is an undemocratic system with its one party rule. This is because this basic disagreement generates distrust and hostility. On the international front, disagreement on Spratly Island and Taiwan intensifies the rivalry, together with America’s military provocation that violates territorial sovereignty through freedom of navigation operations. The tensions between the US and China are causing realignments in the international politics in ways that are affective. The current trade policies involving threats of trade actions and trade retaliations distort global supply networks and influence the world’s economies. In the field of technology, both the countries compete where the US wants to stay ahead in the support technologies of critical sectors such as AI and the Chinese invest a great deal to cover the deficit. This kind of technological competition could possibly result to what might be referred to as the ‘‘divided’’ technological terrain. Security premises are also changing according to the new rules as USA is deepening the partnerships in Asia with reference to china, thus likely to trigger a new arms race and thus escalations of insecurity in the region.

Keywords: New Cold War, US-China Tension, Global Order, Trade War, Military Power