Talk of new Cold War reckless, dangerous

Using infrastructure built as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, we can expect to see China redirect some of its trade toward nearby Eurasia and Africa. Similarly, the US will probably concentrate more on North America.

Also, we can probably expect to see some correction of US banking and regulatory policies, which played a predominant role in devastating the US industrial base. The problems come when US rhetoric blames China for economic problems that are caused by bad US domestic policies.

US and China have more interests－economic and strategic－in common than in opposition. They both need to find the best way to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. They both need economic development and poverty reduction. And both want stability and peace in Asia.

We can hope the huge amount of personal and economic contacts between China and the US should prevent the kind of ignorance addressed in Sting's song. The US and China have had strong economic, cultural and personal ties. During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union had almost no cultural, economic or personal contacts.

I do fear that the knowledge is mostly one way. The Chinese people know a lot more about the US than the other way around. It is very tiring to hear so-called China "experts" on US television who have no idea how to pronounce the names of China's senior leaders.

You might hope that extensive economic contacts between the US and China preclude the possibility of conflict. Yet, we need to learn from history. A 1909 famous book titled The Great Illusion by Norman Angell, a British Nobel Peace Prize winner, argued that the economic costs of a war in Europe would be so great that no one would ever start one.

British and German cultures in the early 20th century were very alike, with lots of economic and family ties, but the two countries still managed to start a disastrous war.

I grew up during the Cold War. Living in Florida as a child, I remember days of fighter jets flying toward Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, which could easily have led to a thermonuclear war. We are lucky that the Cold War ended without catastrophe. The world should not have to live through that again.

Many Chinese people know directly the humanity of Americans and all other people. I would like to take the chance to show the United States the smiling loving families in Beijing's many beautiful parks, just to be sure that everyone understands the threat from nasty rhetoric that could lead to another Cold War, or even worse.