Commentary Over the past two years there has been much talk of a “New Cold War” possibly now breaking out between the United States and China. The truth, however, is that it’s not new. It’s the same old Cold War just being conducted in new ways. The notion of a new Cold War arises from the widespread belief that the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union ended the war in victory for the free world. This view was strengthened by the 1979 establishment of formal relations between the United States and Communist China and by what appeared to the outside world to be an economic policy turn by Beijing onto the capitalist road. Indeed, under the Mao Zedong regime, many Chinese had been jailed and even executed for being “capitalist roaders.” Now it seemed the whole regime was becoming a capitalist roader. At least that was the impression of most …