Chloé Zhao’s Oscar win was a missed opportunity for Beijing. America must hope it keeps missing them.
This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an RV park of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. A cold war has hard and soft components, like an egg or the SAT. Last night the Oscars were a stark reminder the U.S. is winning the soft-power part of the war. The hard part could be a much different story. “Nomadland,” a very good, very depressing movie about premature retirees living in vans, won best picture. Its director, Chloé Zhao, a Chinese national, won best director. (Frances McDormand, a national treasure, won best actress for her part in the movie. Also, if you didn’t find the movie quite depressing enough, please read Jessica Bruder’s very good book.) This would seem to be a huge PR victory for China, given Zhao’s place of birth and the movie’s grim critique of American late capitalism. But one time eight years ago Zhao criticized China as having “lies everywhere.” That pretty much describes any country and is arguably preferable to “seniors barely surviving in vans everywhere.” But Zhao remains persona non grata in China, so its people and media weren’t allowed to mention her or her win. This is a terrible look for Beijing, Clara Ferreira Marques writes, especially contrasted with how American media was totally fine letting Zhao make, release and win boatloads of awards for her critique of America. This is how you lose the soft-power war. Ah, but then there’s that hard-power part, where things get exponentially more difficult for the U.S. We’ve written about how Taiwan is the issue most likely to turn the cold war hot. James Stavridis agrees, but points out there are three other very specific ways a naval war between China and the U.S. could erupt and spread. Apparently in those cases flinging Oscar statuettes won’t do the trick. Further New Cold War Reading: We must press Russia not to kill dissidents but can’t expect quick results. — Hal Brands Who among us will ever forget where we were the day President Joe Biden took our cheeseburgers away? It’s a trick question: Biden is not taking our cheeseburgers away.
