Claremont, California ¨C When historians look back at 2020, many may regard it as a pivotal year, like 1949 and 1979, which transformed China¡¯s relations with the West. After Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People¡¯s Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949, the country became part of the Soviet bloc and an avowed enemy of the U.S.-led West. But 30 years later, when Deng Xiaoping launched his reforms and made an official visit to the United States to normalize Sino-American relations, a China impoverished by Mao¡¯s calamitous rule received a warm welcome back to the international community.
In 2020, the pendulum swung back again toward mutual distrust and hostility. Two developments in China played a decisive role in this fundamental shift: the COVID-19 pandemic and the national-security law that the Chinese government imposed on Hong Kong.
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