I Propose New Terms for the USA-China Rivalry: The Silk Curtain and the Silk War

Against a backdrop of studying WWII and the years surrounding it (including some Cold War items), I’ve been following the current 2020s USA-China relationship closely. I’ve been dissatisfied with the current language available to capture this very strange relationship.

This sparked a thought experiment: what would Churchill call the relationship? The US-Sino relationship in 2026 bears striking similarities to the first Cold War in some ways, yes, but it is fundamentally different. He would have noted that immediately. He would’ve reached for something concrete that captured the striking fundamental paradox that makes this situation unique in history: China and the USA are simultaneously each other's largest trading partners and each other's primary strategic threat.

In that same spirit — and as a humble nod to Churchill’s gift and eye for powerful language — I propose the following terms: the Silk Curtain and the Silk War.

These terms work from top to bottom in ways that would have attracted Churchill’s mind, I suspect. Let me explain why.