Opinion | No China-US cold war but visa freeze puts mutual insight on ice
- Essential but non-official connections between the two countries are being pulled apart just as they are needed most, writes Ankit Panda
If the idea that the United States and China are engaged in open competition may have been controversial a few years ago, it is no longer so.
Starting in 2017, Washington openly acknowledged that “great power” competition was back and Beijing, while less explicit, has all but reciprocated.
While breathless suggestions of a new “cold war” might be overstated – indeed, there are several features of the first cold war that are not present in today’s US-China dynamics – we are beginning to see barriers rise to mutual understanding between the two countries.
First, Zhu Feng, a well-known Chinese international relations expert, was denied entry to the United States. When questioned by American authorities about whether he could declare any involvement with the People’s Liberation Army, Zhu issued a denial.
Second, Michael Pillsbury, a right-leaning American China hand who has advised US President Donald Trump, was not issued a visa to China in time for a conference in Beijing. Like Zhu, he has travelled to China for decades.
Beyond Zhu and Pillsbury, there are signs of a deeper chill in not only US-China intellectual exchanges, but with Western countries allied with the United States and China more broadly. Here, the tragedy and unjust treatment of Canadian scholar and former diplomat Michael Kovrig is central.
