New Cold War will spell more disaster to the US

In my teens, I used to go to see one of my cousins, Advocate Md Nurul Haque, an eminent lawyer of our district town Narsingdi, which is located 50 kilometers northeast of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. On a certain day, I went to the district court where my cousin practices law. As I met up with him, pointing to the usual crowd gathered at the court premises, he asked me, "Do you know why they come here?" I was so prompt to reply to him that ‘to get justice'.

Little could I realize that my brother asked the question to teach me a life lesson and which once I would have to mention in my writing for my readers. Much to my surprise, he said not at all for justice, rather they come here to satisfy their grudge against their relatives, friends, and people with whom they had good terms once. I couldn't read between the lines of his reply at that time, but later I understood how simply he drew a precise conclusion of an important human nature.

The more I get older and mature, the more I realize how people in Bangladesh get insolvent losing their last resort only to satisfy their grudge and settle their old scores. Both—defendants and plaintiffs—go to court out of rage and they don't agree to settle the dispute by arbitration as long as they have not been destitute. I could still remember what my cousin said that after losing everything and getting nothing in return, their rage also fades away and they start imploring the people whom they rejected once to mediate their disputes.

I always get elated as I could learn such a pragmatic and eye-opening life lesson from my cousin. But I can't but get frustrated when I see a wild competition for the satisfaction of rage is rampant everywhere. Our generation of the 1980s was fortunate enough not to witness the cold war between the erstwhile Soviet Union and the US. But we can feel fortunate no longer seeing the world heading towards a fresh cold war that too is unfolding under the leadership of the US. This might be going to be another large-scale and longest exercise of score-settling in our lifetime.

However, the leadership of the US must know that such an unhealthy exercise will spell more disaster to their country and people instead of bringing any good results. It will cause huge pains and suffering to people around the world as well. The leadership should understand that the Soviet Union and China are not the same as their target and the US itself is not in the same position where it was during the Cold War.

The US also needs to realize that it is now standing in the era of globalization when any strategy of coterie and isolation is doomed to fail and boomerang in the long run. Therefore, before getting into any reckless move, the US must consider that during the Cold War it was privileged to lead the capitalist block of the then bipolar world. But now their perceived opponent China is an important ally and strategic partner of many capitalist countries that think the Chinese economy is essential for the development of their homes. As a result, there is almost no chance for the US to get any country on their side for ideological reasons.

The US has to figure out that China is the largest trading and a major development partner of most of the countries of the current world. Even China is one of the major trading partners of the US itself. They can in no way forget that China has already superseded the US becoming the largest trading partner of different regions and blocks including the European Union. The US must keep in mind that it owes $1.1 trillion to China, which has become a major global lender with outstanding claims now exceeding more than six percent of global GDP, according to a report by the Harvard Business Review.

Moreover, as of January 2021, over 150 countries and international organizations have joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China. Of them, 40 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 34 from Europe & Central Asia (including 18 countries of the European Union (EU), 25 from East Asia & Pacific, 17 from the Middle East & North Africa, 18 from Latin America & Caribbean, and six countries of Southeast Asia.

The Economist Corporate Network reported that China has become a significant investor and major lender to developing economies along the BRI. China's non-financial overseas direct investment (ODI) flows to BRI countries grew by 8.9 percent to $15.6bn in 2018. Meanwhile, Chinese financial institutions have provided more than $440bn in funding for BRI projects, with much of the lending done through two policy banks—the China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China. To put this into context, official development aid by the 30 developed-nation members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) totaled about $153bn in 2018.

Given the facts and figures, The US must know that China is helping so many countries including the US allies during the ongoing pandemic and bailed out many economies from bankruptcy. On the contrary, the US has offered nothing to the world but threatening and imposing sanctions on different nations and thus punishing their peoples.

Besides, the US has a long history of attacking, and invading countries, and toppling regimes around the world. But China has no such history despite being one of the winning countries of the Second World War. History thus helps the world realize that China is offering cooperation but the US is still stuck to its old strategy of confrontation that must entail more genocides and bloodshed across the world that people don't want to see anymore.

Against such a backdrop, the earlier the US realizes that China is not the same as the Soviet Union; the better is for the people of the US and the rest of the world. Unless it understands that another cold war will spell more disaster to their already-devastated and nose-diving supremacy, they will have to pay a high price and eventually dig their graves.

As a burnt child always dreads the fire, the world doesn't want to witness a new cold war anymore. But the peace-loving people hope common sense will prevail over the nonsense and never again will the US leadership give in to their rage for the sake of humanity and their people at least.

Md Enamul Hassan is a news editor and broadcast journalist at China Media Group (CMG) in Beijing, China.

The article was first published on China Times on May 10, 2021.