Such dire predictions came following Beijing’s passage of a new National Security Law for Hong Kong at this year’s National People’s Congress (NPC) plenary session. Seeking to control pro-democracy protests in the city, the act has invited renewed protests in Hong Kong and condemnation from Washington amid growing hostility between both great powers.
SINGAPORE (May 26): Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, DBS Group Research’s economists have predicted the impending outbreak of a new ‘cold war’, with US-China relations sinking further into suspicion and acrimony.
DBS economist Taimur Baig sees the US-China relationship as increasingly entering the realm of a zero-sum rivalry for dominance as opposed to healthy, win-win competition. Renewed political unrest in Hong Kong, he warns, could see tensions a further escalation of tensions as Beijing seeks to suppress dissent in the Special Autonomous Region and project power abroad.
