Growing isolation puts China, US ‘on the brink’ of a new cold war

US-China relations are at a “tipping point”, with the two powers on the brink of a technological and cultural cold war, former Washington ambassador to China Max Baucus warned this week.

Among the factors fuelling the downward spiral were the continuing barrage of US sanctions targeting Beijing, rising nationalism in China, growing domestic pressure in the country as Chinese President Xi Jinping seeks a third term, and a class of Chinese officials who are “hypercritical” of the US, he said.