US versus China? Put that cold war talk on ice

The cold war had hot wars in Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia and a nuclear stand off in Cuba – comparing it to today’s situation ‘would be hysterical’, Post’s China Conference hears

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The USS Decatur was recently forced by the Chinese navy vessel Lanzhou to take evasive action to avoid a collision in the South China Sea. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:35pm, 11 Oct 2018Updated: 10:43pm, 11 Oct 2018

Speculation that a full-blown cold war is developing between the United States and Beijing has dominated security circles over the past week, but some commentators say such talk is premature.

The topic dominated a panel discussion on regional security at the South China Morning Post ’s China conference in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Shahriman Lockman, a Malaysian security analyst with the Institute of International and Strategic Studies, said the situation was far less severe than the decades-long cold war between Washington and the former Soviet Union.

That conflict involved “hot wars” – such as the Korean war, Vietnam war and the Cambodian civil war – as well as the Cuban Missile Crisis and a long campaign against communists in Malaysia, the researcher pointed out.

“That was the cold war. It was serious stuff. What we are seeing here today is what I would say is an uneasy peace,” Shahriman said. “It would be hysterical … if you see it as [if] we are entering the kind of intense security condition that we saw in the cold war.”

US President John F. Kennedy signs a proclamation for the interdiction of the delivery of offensive weapons to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of a series of sub-conflicts during the cold war between the US and the former Soviet Union. Photo: Reuters

He added: “The United States does not believe that China can be contained, nor does it want to contain China.”