WI: US-China Cold War

How could the US and China enter into a cold war sometime between 1989-1996, and continue until sometime into the 2010s?
Who would be on each side? Where would the potential flashpoints be, where the two sides could fight proxy wars?
What effect could this have on Afghanistan? I can still see 9/11 happening and the US invading Afghanistan. However, assuming Pakistan is allied with China, I could see the Taliban and ISI fighting a proxy war Soviet style
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
I'm sorry but the double bump is really not cool. There is a board policy recently restated against doing this.
 
I assume in the case of a cold war the Chinese currency wouldn't be pegged to the dollar. I also reckon that there would be trade barriers between US and China.

China can't stand against USA in any type of cold war style conflict that early. They could now but not then. China would have needed Russia as a firm ally to have much of a chance of counter balancing the Americans. Russia could also provide realistic nuclear depth.
 
I assume in the case of a cold war the Chinese currency wouldn't be pegged to the dollar. I also reckon that there would be trade barriers between US and China.

China can't stand against USA in any type of cold war style conflict that early. They could now but not then. China would have needed Russia as a firm ally to have much of a chance of counter balancing the Americans. Russia could also provide realistic nuclear depth.

Maybe the backlash of the Tienamen protest is much worse and bring a more hardline goverment in charge; one more nationalistic and ready to push harder clain over Taiwan and Spratley Islands (among others) and being more confrontational with her neighbourghs...maybe even creating an alliance (of extremely convenience) of rogue nations (North Korea, Iran, Cuba, etc. etc.)
 
Even in the aftermath of Tiananmen, China wouldn't be willing to fight a cold war. They don't have the strength to do so. The USA can certainly sanction them and cripple them, but that won't lead to cold war. If anything, that would prevent it, because China had been knocked over.

For a cold war between China and the USA, you need a stronger China. For that to happen, you'll need a non-Republican China, albeit one that's reformed significantly. Two easy PODs for a stronger China are 1898, and 1912. Past that point, it's too late.

The 1898 one relies on Cixi's coup failing, thus resulting in the reformist emperor Guangxu remaining in power. In theory, such would lead to reform and strengthening. Such would set the stage for a later cold war between the USA and China, as China can actually function.

Alternately, you could just go with the plot of WIAF, and have something happen to turn the USA and China against each other.
 
I'm sorry but the double bump is really not cool. There is a board policy recently restated against doing this.
Agree fully, was thinking the same thing earlier today before the last post by CalBear.

However as a recomendation, isn't it better to just delete the bump posts now that we have some replies on theme (if the member will be disciplined in other ways it's of course up to the mods)? Have a few ideas to put forward regarding this US-China cold war, but don't have time right now. Thanks.
 
How could the US and China enter into a cold war sometime between 1989-1996, and continue until sometime into the 2010s?
Who would be on each side? Where would the potential flashpoints be, where the two sides could fight proxy wars?
What effect could this have on Afghanistan? I can still see 9/11 happening and the US invading Afghanistan. However, assuming Pakistan is allied with China, I could see the Taliban and ISI fighting a proxy war Soviet style
The only way I can see this happening is if the Soviet Union goes down Yugoslavia style with a successful August Coup that somehow kills off Yeltsin and possibly Gorbechev in the process and then later on armed non-Russian rebel groups start uprisings across the USSR along with the anti-Coup opposition by Russians form; the civil war goes nuclear and both NATO and China intervene, backing their respective proxies in this messy conflict, inevitably competing against each other. It would help to have the OTL Taiwan Crisis of 1996 still occur ITTL just to ensure that the Cold War would shift from a US-Soviet one to a US-Chinese one.

That's the backstory for how the geopolitical scene of the early 21st century came to be in an upcoming webcomic that I still have to make.
 
How about an earlier POD in the 1960s where Mao is successful with the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward?
 
How could the US and China enter into a cold war sometime between 1989-1996, and continue until sometime into the 2010s?

So we just ignore the actual Sino-American Cold War that lasted from 1945 until 1972?
(You know, the one that included the Korean 'police action', as well as the Taiwan Strait and everything).
 
How could the US and China enter into a cold war sometime between 1989-1996, and continue until sometime into the 2010s?
Who would be on each side? Where would the potential flashpoints be, where the two sides could fight proxy wars?
What effect could this have on Afghanistan? I can still see 9/11 happening and the US invading Afghanistan. However, assuming Pakistan is allied with China, I could see the Taliban and ISI fighting a proxy war Soviet style
russia is just too powerful to be ignored like this.
 
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