The cold war between U.S. and China just got a lot hotter
cnbc.com
cnbc.com
China is not under the same pressure. Its bigger growth in GDP means that sooner or later, probably around 2025, it will automatically take that No. 1 spot anyway, thus relegating the US to the No.2 position.
That is unacceptable to people in the US, where nobody under about the age of 50 has personal experience of that situation ever happening before. It would be unthinkable and mind-blowing for them. (For us older people, we can remember when the Soviets were first into space, they had bigger H-bombs, etc.)
Consequently, the US must embark on a hot war to prevent that happening. Unfortunately for the US they lost their golden opportunity of initiating the conflict before/during the Spring-Summer Campaign Season of 2020.
From here on in, the US will be under a declining probability of Victory, while China has a growing probability of Victory in that war. Nevertheless, the US will be forced to initiate the conflict which will very likely result in huge damage, defeat or bankruptcy for the US.
Most Americans will refuse to see this outcome and will be angry that they have been forced to see it happen.
His 1961 inaugural address not only suggested avoiding the Sith morality of "one to embody power, the other to crave it"[1]:
> "And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved."
but even referenced a chinese chengyu, 騎虎難下:
> "remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside."
(Cynics will note that both JFK and НСХ were cancelled, just a few seasons later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_John_F._Kenne...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev#Removal
An optimist would note both fates were better than being nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change.)
On a much lighter note, also from 1961, here's a musical number that starts with a construction crew holiday party and ends with Sputnik (1m47): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmTzvtLXB8s
[1] Anyone know how the Rule of Two is translated in chinese? (I've never watched eps. 1-3, so I wouldn't even know what timestamps to check in subs.) It seems like it'd be amenable to the chengyu treatment, along the lines of 一霸一觊?