US-China tensions soar as 'new cold war' heats up by Julian Borger in Washington Lily Kuo in Beijing
US-China tensions soar as 'new cold war' heats up by Julian Borger in Washington Lily Kuo in Beijing Special force soldiers at a military port in Qingdao, Shandong province of China. Photograph: VCG/VCG via Getty Images Rivalry escalates amid concerns over trade, as warships nearly collide and an FBI trap angers Beijing The US and China have shrugged off rules and constraints that have kept their 21st-century global rivalry in check, opening the way for an escalating conflict on many fronts that neither side appears willing or able to stop. Chinese officials have accused Washington of starting a new cold war, but the jostling between the two powers has already shown its potential to turn hot through accident or miscalculation, if action is not taken to defuse tensions. Within the past few weeks, as a trade war loomed between the two countries, US and Chinese warships came within yards of colliding in the South China Sea. And the FBI set a trap in Belgium for a senior C