Opinion | Hyping the US-China trade war into a cold war is misleading – it’s more complicated, and potentially more dangerous

People like stretching historical analogies over present-day problems, even when they don’t quite fit. It’s no wonder that the United States’ competition with China in trade and technology has been widely dubbed the “new cold war”, though it bears only a superficial resemblance to that period of ideological conflict.

What the world faces now is much more complicated than that. We’re entering a chaotic period of shifting, unprincipled relationships. It’s not a competition between the “free world” and “authoritarianism” any more but, rather, a world divided against itself, chasing short-term gains as nationalism rises.

Over the last several years, the values and opportunities that China and the US represent to the world have changed at a pace unique in recent history. Most countries have successfully navigated between China and the US, but if relations between the two sour much further, the pressure on other countries to choose sides might be impossible to ignore.

The US has changed dramatically under President Donald Trump. He has elevated an anti-immigrant, anti-global, anti-free trade agenda, targeting allies and competitors alike. He wields tariffs like a bludgeon over any country he determines to be working against his interests, ranging from Mexico (in the name of stemming the flow of illegal immigrants) to potentially Australia (on who knows what whim).

And he has trampled on cherished democratic norms and the legitimacy of the constitution, Congress, and courts. Gone are the days of the US as a beacon of human rights and open markets, and as the land of seemingly unending opportunity.