By Steve Miller | February 18, 2019 05:35 AM |
SEOUL - Should Washington and Beijing reach an agreement on the current tariff impasse, that may not be enough to avert what many experts speaking at the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies called a “new Cold War” between the countries.
Yoon Young-kwan, former South Korean Minister of Public Affairs said, “We are now entering to a more unstable and dangerous era of international relations.”
He was not alone in that assessment.
“The foundations for a constructive U.S.-China relationship are more fragile than at any time in recent decades,” said Stapleton Roy, former U.S. Ambassador to China during the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations and the founding director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the U.S.
He said the hostile rivalry between China and the United States will continue to adversely affect the interests of East Asian nations.
“If Washington and Beijing cannot reconcile their respective interests and ambitions in the western Pacific,” Roy added, “This will increase the possibility of military confrontations, divert resources from economic development to a dangerous and costly the arms race, and enhance the likelihood of nuclear proliferation and increased pressures on the countries in East Asia to choose sides.”
Former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under the Obama and Trump administrations Daniel Russel also noted, “The deterioration of U.S.-China relations has implications for Northeast Asia that go well beyond North Korea. All countries are going to resist being forced to line up behind one side or another in a new Cold War.”
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