There has long been talk that the strategic rivalry emerging between the United States and China in recent years could one day give way to confrontation. That moment has arrived. Welcome to the Cold War 2.0.
The standard narrative about the Sino-American conflict is that it pits two distinct systems against each other. To the U.S., China is a big data dictatorship that has detained 1 million Uighurs in concentration camps, cracked down on Christians, curtailed civil rights and destroyed the environment — all while building up its military and threatening America's regional allies.
In the view of many Chinese, the U.S. is an exponent of interventionism and imperialism, and the Trump administration's trade war is merely the opening shot in a larger economic, military and ideological contest for supremacy.