Better question: Haven’t we always been in Cold War 2.0 with China, only failed to recognize it? Hugh Hewitt asks Vice President Mike Pence instead whether the coronavirus pandemic has put the US in nonviolent confrontation with the communist regime in Beijing, and gets four seconds of silence before Pence talks around it. Hugh then mentions that the mask is “coming off the CCP,” but that might not be the best analogy for this situation:

HH: It is. Now I’ve got three more. This is a hard one. The President and you at the Lincoln Memorial talked about China. And the President said that look, the Chinese allowed people from Wuhan to fly to international destinations, but not within China. And he intimated that they may have done that knowingly for the purposes of spreading the disadvantage, the economic chaos. Are we in Cold War 2.0, Vice President Pence?

MP: (4 second pause) Well, let me say President Trump’s made it clear that we’re going to get to the bottom of what happened in China and why it was that China and the World Health Organization did not inform the United States or nations around the planet of the real threat of the Coronavirus. We’ve got our intelligence community working on that now. And I know we’ll get to the bottom of the facts, but that we’re going to hold, as the President’s already suspended payments to the World Health Organization, the President’s made it clear that at the right time, we’re going to bring the facts to the American people, and we’re going to hold China accountable. That being said, look, one of the enduring lessons that I think has broken through with the American people has been just how right President Trump has been for years about the need to reset our trading relationship with China first, and with other nations around the world. I mean, we’ve met the needs of our health care community. We’ve had what we call an air bridge, has flown 119 flights of supplies in from around the world of masks and gloves and gowns. But one of the things going forward is we are going to be working very earnestly to bring back home and domestic production of these critical elements of our health care system. And but I think all of your listeners can be confident that President Trump, as he’s done from Day One, is going to continue to stand strong about the advantage that China has taken of the United States for decades, to reset that relationship. But specifically on the Coronavirus, we’re going to get to the bottom of it, and we’re going to hold those that did not play straight with the world accountable.

HH: Well, you hesitated, though. You don’t want to use the word Cold War 2.0, do you? And I don’t understand why, but I understand diplomacy. Maybe it’s not an opportune time to do it, but it does seem like among the masks that are at issue is the one that’s coming off the CCP.

MP: Well, look, we hope for a better relationship with China. But whether it be the imposition of tariffs, whether it be the way we’ve spoken out against human rights abuses by the People’s Republic of China, you know, the suppression of religious freedoms, the persecution of Christian pastors, of Muslim Uighurs, the confronting China with their ambitions in the South China Sea, and continuing to defend our commitment to freedom of navigation, we’ll continue to make all of those stands. But you know, from early on, the President forged a good working relationship with President Xi, and we continue to hope for better things in our relationship with China. But the American people can be confident this president, this administration will continue to stand firm on behalf of our economy and on behalf of our most cherished ideals.

That four second pause, followed by a non-denial, speaks louder than anything that preceded or followed it. Of course we’re in a Cold War situation at the moment, but the first rule of Cold War Club is that you don’t talk about Cold War Club, lest you take the blame for it. China has aimed malicious propaganda at the US and other nations that have called out Beijing for its lies and cover-up of this pandemic. China still refuses to cooperate honestly, denying access to their viral material and destroying evidence that might point to the real origin of the virus.

However, the issue isn’t a “mask” over the China Communist Party but the blinders that the West imposed on itself for years, perhaps decades, about the CCP. China has relentlessly exploited free trade to steal intellectual property, especially that which can be put to use by its military to compete with the US. Their CM2025 project aims to develop enough power to push the US out of the western Pacific; their Belt and Road Initiative is designed to replicate the Soviet Union’s malign control of other countries through economic and technological dependency in Asia, Africa, and even Europe. All of that is aimed at limiting American reach and influence, and by the way it’s working already.

And that doesn’t even count the years-long cyberwarfare conducted by China against US government operations. The time to ask about Cold War 2.0 was in 2013 at the latest, when the Pentagon warned that China was hacking into its computer operations. That would later include the Office of Professional Management, as well as commercial targets like Equifax. That cyberwarfare is a little warmer than a “cold war,” too.

The real question isn’t whether Pence declares Cold War 2.0. It’s why it has taken this long to take the blinders off and realize we’ve been under attack for years. The Trump administration at least pushed back on China’s IP theft in trade, but the entire country needs a wake-up call. Perhaps COVID-19 will inadvertently provide the catalyst for finally removing those blinders.

The Hugh Hewitt show hasn’t posted the video of the interview yet on YouTube, but the entire show is below. When the Cold War 2.0 discussion gets clipped out, I’ll add it to the post.