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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

On Track for Cold War with China

The rivalry between the US and China colors everything in the Indo-Pacific, including the chances of another India-Pakistan war.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
An Indian Border Security Force soldier checks the passports of Pakistani citizens as they return to their country at the India-Pakistan border on the outskirts of Amritsar, India, on April 25, 2025. (Narinder Nanu via Getty Images)
Caption
An Indian Border Security Force soldier checks the passports of Pakistani citizens as they return to their country at the India-Pakistan border on the outskirts of Amritsar, India, on April 25, 2025. (Narinder Nanu via Getty Images)

It鈥檚 been another barnburner week in world politics, and for a change some of the biggest events were neither generated by nor centered on .

Not that America鈥檚 president didn鈥檛 make waves. Tariffs rose and fell with the usual dizzying speed, and the trade standoff between the U.S. and China began to register in collapsing demand for shipping containers and airfreight deliveries. A dramatic mini-summit between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump in St. Peter鈥檚 Basilica heralded a possible thaw in U.S.-Ukrainian relations as more Trump officials expressed frustration with the Kremlin鈥檚 response to American peace proposals.