Hong Kong’s chief executive last week announced that the Legislative Council elections slated for September would be held one year later, emphasising that the decision was made purely out of concern for public health, given that Covid-19 cases were rising exponentially . Some members of the opposition have accused the Hong Kong government, and even the central government, of being afraid of a repeat of the devastating defeat suffered by the pro-Beijing camp in the district council elections last year. But I do not think this was the fundamental consideration in the decision to postpone the Legco vote. Bear in mind that Hong Kong is but a pawn in the new cold war between China and the United States, or, more specifically, the Trump administration. Since last year, Hong Kong has been disrupted by protests; and now the US is also suffering similar chaos, with Black Lives Matter demonstrations and other protests. The Trump administration has started to play up the China card since the surge in Covid-19 cases and protests during an election year. The death of George Floyd in police custody has dramatically ignited the anger about systemic racial injustice in the US, with anywhere from 15 million to 26 million people having recently taken part in a protest, according to a New York Times estimate that held up Black Lives Matter as probably the biggest movement in US history. Amid this wave of protests against white supremacy, the disappointing federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic recession, most polls now also indicate that the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for the presidential elections, Joe Biden, is leading his rival, President Donald Trump, by substantial margins in the key electoral states. Ex-vice president Biden is relatively more predictable in politics and more knowledgeable about international relations. It may be expected that Beijing, before considering further drastic action, will wait for the results of the US presidential election and base its reactions upon the approach adopted by the next administration, whether it is Trump or Biden in the White House. Meanwhile, issues such as territorial disputes in the South China Sea , the fallout over TikTok and Huawei , as well as Hong Kong, are just pieces on the chess board between the two superpowers. However, in the face of the new cold war and the potential for a hot war, the Legco elections in Hong Kong can seem like small potatoes indeed. Louis Yim, Shau Kei Wan