By Bryan Williams

I have felt for quite some time that after "winning" the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the United States hasn't had that sense of national rivalry and competitiveness that existed from 1945-1991. I mean … look at what we achieved! Putting a man on the moon and showing the world that America had "The Right Stuff." For much of my life it seems America has remained Number One in the world, but we have been lacking in that competitive spirit, laced with the threat of annihilation and total war. This drove us to innovate, succeed, strive, and know in our hearts that we deserve to tell the world we are Number One. We are the good guys, after all.

In comes China, which looks just as dangerous as the old Soviet Union and then some. China has a peculiar form of communism that embraces capitalism and the ownership of private property (or perhaps, more appropriately put, the embrace of materialism, as I don't believe anything in China is private). The Soviets would blush at what modern day China has become because of its capitalistic development. Comrades in ideology they are not.

Much has been said about the interconnectedness between China and the rest of the world. The West needs China to produce goods cheaply and in quantities to meet our voracious demand, and China needs us to keep their factories humming and workers employed. On this, I think most of the world can agree: making money and keeping stomachs filled and material desires met is important. Chinese people want nice cars, the latest phones, and luxurious vacations just as much as Americans do. The missing link, however, is our guaranteed freedoms given to us by God, and written down by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The Chinese do not have the freedom of speech, of movement, to protest, etc. Our freedoms and our very culture, I believe, will allow us to win this new Cold War.

In some ways this Cold War will be more challenging than the Cold War with the Soviets because technology has advanced and, well, because China has more than four times our population. We lead China is many important ways, however. We still have the most advanced and powerful military in the world (China only has one aircraft carrier), and China, though flexing its muscles in the South China Sea, is boxed in by our allies Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and India. China's theft of the West's intellectual property, and its other industrial espionage enterprises (Huawei anyone?) should give us all concern. China and Russia appear to have more advanced cyber warfare capabilities, and they are not afraid to use them against us. And what about space? China already has plans to put a men on the moon and have sent probes to Mars.

China's emergence as our key 21st Century rival, I think, will be good for us. The chances of it turning into a “hot” war are nil. Just as MAD (mutually assured destruction) protected us from nuclear war with the Soviets (who wanted to avoid nuclear annihilation as much as we did), our economic interconnectedness will keep us from bombing Beijing. If we want to win this new Cold War, we need to increase our soft diplomacy and ramp up efforts like Radio Free Asia, and exchange student programs, and help enlighten 1.4 billion Chinese on what it is like to be truly free.