Rising US-China tensions: Slouching towards Cold War II?

ON MARCH 12, 1947, then US President Harry Truman delivered a major address before Congress in which he stated the principles of what became known as the Cold War, depicting the Soviet Union as the major threat to US global interests.

The so-called Truman Doctrine created the foundations of American foreign policy in the next 50 years and set the stage for the global struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. It may be too early to call it the Pence Doctrine, but the address delivered in Washington last week by Vice-President Mike Pence seemed aimed at preparing Americans for a struggle against a new global enemy - China - as he pledged to "reset" the relationship between Washington and Beijing.

During the first two years of the Trump presidency, the self-proclaimed economic nationalist occupying the White House made it clear he was intent on rebooting the trade relationship between the world's two largest economies. Most recently, President Donald Trump intensified his trade fight against China, imposing tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods and threatening to tax nearly all imports from China.