Opinion
SCMP Columnist
30 years after the Berlin Wall fell, China’s digital barriers are stronger and protectionism is making a global comeback
- The end of the cold war failed to reshape China, which used the free market and technology to build a prosperous surveillance state
- Now, a US-led coalition of democracies are ranged against the world’s last major communist power in a new cold war
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (left) and US president Ronald Reagan exchange pens after signing a landmark nuclear treaty in 1987 that cooled the arms race between the two countries. Gorbachev recently warned that abandoning the treaty risks a fresh arms race that endangers the world. Photo: AP
Opinion
Opinion
The end of history? Communism and the cold war continue to blight democratic ideals 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall
- We still live in a world of authoritarian regimes of Russia, China and North Korea on one side, and the democratic US and its allies on the other, with proxy-war rivalries playing out in Syria and Ukraine. With a renewed arms race and second cold war upon us, what’s changed?
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (left) and US president Ronald Reagan exchange pens after signing a landmark nuclear treaty in 1987 that cooled the arms race between the two countries. Gorbachev recently warned that abandoning the treaty risks a fresh arms race that endangers the world. Photo: AP