Joseph Stiglitz: This is how the US could lose the new cold war

The clock is ticking and, unless America undoes the damage it has done to itself, it will continue to cede power to China

Building from old-school industry such as this clock factory in Shandong province, China is outstripping the US as an exporter of tech and infrastructure via its Belt and Road initiative. Picture: STR/AFP/Getty

The US appears to have entered a new cold war with both China and Russia.

And US leaders’ portrayal of the confrontation as one between democracy and authoritarianism fails the smell test, especially at a time when the same leaders are actively courting a systematic human rights abuser like Saudi Arabia.