Fischer: It makes no sense for the West to launch a "new Cold War" against China

Former German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer published an article on the German "China Platform" website on June 22 saying that it was pointless for the West to launch a "new Cold War" against China. The full text is excerpted below:

With the recent G7 summit in Cornwall, England, the international politics is permeated with a strong atmosphere of a new version of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. It seems that China is no longer just a competitor and an adversary, but a "systemic replacement" for the West. It seems like another confrontation about mutually exclusive institutions, values, power claims, and global leadership. The emergence of a major military confrontation, or at least a new arms race, is not excluded.

On closer inspection, however, a comparison between the Cold War of the 20th century and the emerging confrontation between the West and China seems misleading.

The Cold War of the past was formed after the defeats of Germany and Japan. The United States and the Soviet Union were already sworn enemies in the ideological realm before World War II.

The situation in the West and China today is completely different.

China is preparing to surpass the United States in the technology and economic spheres by around 2030. The Soviet Union, in the nearly 70 years of its existence, has never had such an opportunity. The Chinese model has proven to be far more competitive than the Soviet Union in its competition with the West.

So what exactly should Cold War 2.0 be? Forcing China to Westernize? Curbing its development? Or just slow down its rise? All of these goals are illusory, and for all those involved, they can never be achieved at a reasonable cost. Any illusion of isolating this great power seems ridiculous.

Who will be the number one in the world in the 21st century? China or the United States, or the entire West, including the United States? Can this really change the basic historical direction of China's rise and the decline of the West in this century? I don't think so.

The West desperately needs to wake up from its illusion of containing China's rise. Economic greed in the West has undoubtedly long hindered rational and sober considerations.

In addition, this COVID-19 pandemic should broaden our horizons. A pandemic and an imminent climate crisis will be the first to force great powers to work together in this century, or all of humanity will fail no matter who becomes the world's number one.

In this century, the question of who is the world's number one will depend on leadership in defending against global crises and threats, not on a senseless new Cold War in which there are only losers and no winners.

Source: Reference News Network