China-US Great Power Rivalry: Have Beijing and Washington already Entered a New Cold War since 2017?

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, China’s comprehensive national power and global influence have continued to expand. Beijing’s more assertive foreign policy, especially after Xi Jinping assumed power in 2012, has increasingly suggested that China is emerging as a challenger to Washington’s global predominance. Meanwhile, under both the (first) Trump administration (2017–2020) and the Biden administration (2021–2024), the American policy toward China has broadly shifted away from the engagement strategy that had shaped bilateral relations from 1972 to 2017 and toward a more containment-oriented approach. The multidimensional tensions between the two countries since 2017 have led many observers to describe the Beijing-Washington relationship, albeit often loosely, as a New Cold War (NCW). This thesis therefore seeks to systematically compare the Cold War (CW) between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union with the contemporary Sino-American rivalry. The comparison is organized around three central dimensions: ideology, economics and technology, and geopolitics. By conducting analysis of primary sources, including government reports and official speeches from both sides since 2017, alongside an examination of secondary literature, this study aims to clarify the meaning of NCW narratives and the nature of current US-China competition. On the basis of a comprehensive comparison across these key areas, the thesis ultimately offers a clearer definition of the “NCW” and advances the concept of “Conflictual Coexistence” as a more accurate framework for understanding the bilateral relationship.