The US Announces the Beginning of a New Cold War

The southern California city of Yorba Linda made history on Jan. 9, 1913, when future 37th president, Richard Nixon, was born there. Now, Yorba Linda is on par with the town of Fulton, Missouri, where Winston Churchill announced the beginning of the Cold War on March 5, 1946.

While speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared a new cold war between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.

The first Cold War began during the United Nations’ victory in World War II. The opponents were crushed, broken and forced to surrender unconditionally, and their territories were occupied. Disregarding neutral states such as Sweden, Switzerland and Spain, the world became unipolar. Then, the declaration of a cold war between former allies divided the world into two blocks: capitalism led by the U.S. and socialism headed by the USSR. A third power was nowhere to be found in March 1946.

The Non-Aligned Movement that emerged later, did not have a pronounced position or subjectivity, which allowed it to become the third power. It was a lone wolf.

Today’s world is similar. It was also unipolar following the West’s victory in the Cold War. Then, there was a split again. But to what extent is such a split inevitable? How willing are Russia or India to take an explicit side in such a split? Since 2013, Western politics have actively been pushing Russia into the arms of communist China. Will the West change their approach now? Is the West sure that it wants to see not only the PRC as an enemy, but also the PRC in an alliance with Russia?

In 1971, under President Nixon, the U.S. drastically changed its attitude toward the communist portion of China. It poured huge funds into the Chinese economy in order to use its resources both to contain the USSR and to correct internal imbalances in its own economy. However, prior relations between the U.S. and China were much worse than those between the U.S. and Russia today. The U.S. previously did not legally recognize Beijing as the legitimate government of China while maintaining diplomatic relations with the government of the Republic of China in Taipei. At least there are diplomatic relations between Russia and the U.S. today.

Could the game of 1971 be played once again with Russia and China switching roles? I think we will see soon.

The current version of the global world ended yesterday. The one in which we lived for 30 years — a period so long that we began to naively believe that it was the only possible “end of history.” In Yorba Linda, that world came to an abrupt end.

There were obvious macroeconomic prerequisites for this, making the unfolding of events predictable and expected for those who thought logically. The future development of the United States and mainland China are only vaguely understood. But, this is worth talking about in detail at another time.

In short, we are at the beginning of a new era! Whether we like it or not, it has begun.