Relations between the world's two major powers have deteriorated to their lowest point in decades as the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded.
Blame game
China's diplomats and state media have claimed the virus originated in the United States, which in turn saw United States President Donald Trump refer to the virus as the "Chinese virus".
While Trump subsequently stopped using the term, he began pushing the conspiracy theory that a virology lab in Wuhan had accidentally leaked the virus.
The U.S. stands out for such accusations, even among the western countries that started pushing for greater transparency from the Chinese government on the virus outbreak.
The country has also stepped up its effort to prod companies to move global industrial supply chains away from China.
In addition, Trump has threatened to undo progress made over the trade dispute by scrapping the trade agreement signed between both countries about four months ago, Reuters reported.
In a speech delivered in Mandarin, Trump's China advisor had even encouraged the Chinese people to rise up against the Chinese Communist Party, while using China's own history to criticise its leaders.
China has in turn stepped up its rhetoric on the U.S., with many diplomats sharing a video produced by state media that mocks the management of the health crisis in the U.S.
A leaked internal Chinese government report posited that anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, and that hostilities with the U.S. might tip over to confrontations, according to Reuters.
A new Cold War?
Worsening ties between the U.S. and China have fuelled talks of a new Cold War.
Clete Willems, a former trade official from the Trump administration told CNBC that although some might be uncomfortable with the term, a new Cold War between both countries is, in fact, brewing.
He also added that while there is speculation that Trump's aggressive rhetoric towards China arose out of a need to find a whipping boy to blame as he faces mounting criticism over his handling of the outbreak, rising unemployment and a tanking economy, that is not the case as there has been growing frustrations within the administration, and that the pandemic simply amplified such voices.
Shi Yinhong, a professor at China's Renmin University and an adviser to China's State Council, told South China Morning Post that the new Cold War both countries are in is different from the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in that they face "full competition and a rapid decoupling".
U.S.-China relations now are not even the same as that a few months ago, he added.
Martin Jacques, a political commentator who has been bullish about China as the U.S. declines, said the world is now watching "the birth of a new Cold War" and that the West got China wrong as they sought to view the country through a predominantly Western prism.
With rising anti-China sentiment in the U.S. that cuts across party lines, and the slim possibility of China backing down in the face of a hostile power, the new Cold War is likely to stay for the foreseeable years ahead.
Top image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images