Using China as bogeyman to help unite America, revive NATO is fool: The Nation

NEW YORK, March 17 (Xinhua) -- It is folly to use China as a bogeyman to help unite America and revive NATO, and China and the United States need to work on finding common solutions to the problems that threaten all of humanity, The Nation magazine said in an article.

In the article, titled "Cold War Nostalgia Fuels a Dangerous New Anti-China Consensus" and published on Monday, The Nation said "the Chinese bogeyman is seen by some as useful not just domestically but also as a tool for repairing the fraying Western alliance."

For the American political elite, said the article, the Cold War was the period when "the United States enjoyed the privileged spot as the leader of the free world, a coveted ally by many nations," and "somewhat selectively, as a period of high bipartisan consensus."

In fact, the United States has many issues with China ranging from trade practices to environmental management, among others, "but these are all matters to be settled by diplomacy," said the article, and "none of them call for anything comparable to a Cold War-style global struggle."

The ideological divide that animated the Cold War no longer exists, according to the article.

In truth, said the article, in a world of COVID-19 and climate change, China and the United States are two large countries with intertwined economies that need to work on finding common solutions to the problems that threaten all of humanity, and a Cold War Live-action role playing, or LARPing, as it is popularly known, is a dangerous distraction from that reality.