Opinion | US’ distorted view of the China threat risks creating a cold war nightmare
- China is no innocent bystander and many of its actions deserve a strong international response
- But paranoia among US and its allies distorts their view of China – from being a mild revisionist power seeking influence to representing an existential threat
After spending a summer in the Soviet Union in 1960, American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner came to believe that the intensifying Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was mostly a product of distorted perceptions.
Bronfenbrenner observed five common distortions: (1) they are the aggressors; (2) their government exploits and deludes the people; (3) the masses are not really sympathetic to the regime; (4) they cannot be trusted, and; (5) their policy verges on madness.
For Bronfenbrenner, this phenomenon was best metaphorised as a mirror image in twisted glass. The problem was that such distortions resulted in dangerous escalations and made rationally unthinkable outcomes, such as nuclear war, seem a potential necessary evil to stop the other side from fulfilling their dark desires.
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The Cold War occurred during a clear distribution of power between two superpowers presiding over blocs of aligned, smaller states. There was very little trade between the US and the Soviet Union, and both sides had strong ideologies (democratic capitalism vs Marxist-Leninism).
