The 10 Commandments of the ‘free world’, drifting towards a perilous faith of sinophobia
when numbers do not add up anymore, people turn to faith…
I couldn’t suppress a sense of a religious undertone when I went through following report with more than 70 pages, released last week by the US Secretary of State; the Elements of the China Challenge. A 10-step blueprint for confronting the ‘China Challenge’ or maybe better phrased the 10 Commandments to counter the severe threat of China to the current world order; ‘the free world’.
A senior administration official told the Washington Examiner that “over the coming weeks, the Trump administration will continue to expand the depth and breadth of the historic actions it has taken over the past four years to protect the vital interests of the United States and its allies countering Beijing’s predatory and coercive behaviors”.
Also in Europe, there is an increasing stance against China being a threat for the Western world with national policies being drafted on how to deal with China. Even last week Dutch political party D66 announced the need for a parliamentary investigation into the ‘threatening Chinese interference’ in Dutch society.
Read more about the why and how the policies by Western countries with regard to China came about in my recent article “a glimpse behind the façade of Western China policies”
At this stage, there is an extraordinary movement going on, directed by the United States traveling the world and preaching the absolute need for a grand alliance to protect the free world from the risk to be overthrown by China’s predatory ambitions.
Many leaders and politicians in Europe and other parts of the world might have been relieved when President-elect Biden won the elections last month from President Trump but make no mistake about the course of foreign and geopolitical policies in coming years. Biden and his team might be much more charming, engaging priests in their preaches, seemingly more understandable and seeking dialog. However, there is no sign in their agenda about America’s position in the world and especially for the stance against China being much different from the 10 commandments.
During the election race, the next American leader has denounced Xi as a “thug”, criticized the ruling communist regime as a “dictatorship”, and warned of “swift economic sanctions” against human rights violations in Chinese territories.
“The United States does need to get tough on China,” Biden wrote earlier this year in an essay in the website Foreign Affairs.
The road living up to the commandments might differ though. Biden’s administration will probably be more successful to get the grand Western alliance together and moving forward by engagement which was uncomfortably missed in the communication between the Trump administration and their allies, especially with those in Europe.
The separation between China and the USA (with other Western nations in the slipstream) might intensify by switching from withdrawal policies to politicizing multilateral institutes such as NATO or WTO with more ideology.
Moreover, Trump’s legacy of his China agenda with continuing policies against China expected during the last months of his presidency has set the China course for next decade(s). John Ullyot, Trump’s National Security Council spokesperson, told the media, “Unless Beijing reverses course and becomes a responsible player on the global stage, future US presidents will find it politically suicidal to reverse President Trump’s historic actions.”
Dr. Henry Kissinger urged last week at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum to restore lines of communication with China, he said “unless there is some basis for some cooperative action, the world will slide into a catastrophe comparable to World War I” further mentioning that military technologies available today would make such a crisis “even more difficult to control” than those of earlier era.
Cambridge historian Christopher Munro Clark observed in his classic account of the origins of World War I, The Sleepwalkers, “On both sides, they imagined that ‘bluffing’ would suffice to achieve success. None of the players thought that it would be necessary to go all the way. The tragic poker game had begun.”
Even though none of the major powers expected nor desired war, “the protagonists of 1914 were sleepwalkers, watchful but unseeing, haunted by dreams, yet blind to the reality of the horror they were about to bring into the world,” the historian added.
As Clark observes, the end of Cold War “invites comparison with the Europe of 1914” because of “a more complex and unpredictable array of forces”, including the rise of China and the relative decline of the US.
Biden will hopefully heed Kissinger’s advice to some extent for “some cooperative endeavors” in order to “alleviate” tensions between the West and China to a manageable level. This is at the minimum a dear necessity for a glimpse of light towards the future.
However current circumstances pose severe risks to this hope. The pandemic with an unprecedented economic crisis aftermath all over the world in coming years together with a potentially growing divide and unrest in political and social movements are a crucial crossroad.
The crossroad is either start walking the steep trail up for a long term, structural agenda for innovation, economic reforms and environment in global strategic collaboration, or sliding the slippery slope down of further separation, polarizing and politicizing ideologies with short term destructive policies at increasingly uncontrollable speed and force.
During coming years, foreign policy agendas in Western nations, especially with regard to China, depend foremost on how well Western governments will perform in their domestic lands, managing the pandemic, economic reforms and social stability for their people. This under the sword of political divide and economic pressure. Nonetheless the ambition for remaining in or grasping power today still seems the greater good to the expense of the much needed economic, environmental and social transformations for the people. And for “this greater political good”, any mean is permitted, independent from political color or individual.
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The faith of sinophobia
When numbers or facts do often not provide the desired support for political agendas anymore, people turn to faith. Politicizing faith is the ultimate escape for carrying out agendas without the need of showing evidence or proof anymore (or otherwise purposely fabricating ‘evidence’). Faith and belief turn simply into the truth and reality.
Western exceptionalism has been in place since WWII having shown the numbers of welfare, prosperity, norms and freedom until recently as indisputable facts and superior to any other form of governance or human community in the world. Though this perception is being challenged in recent years by new geopolitical, economical, social and high-tech perspectives from both outside but also not the least from within.
The ‘numbers’ of Western exceptionalism seem less and less being able to add up.
Two schemes pop up in mind for the sake of perpetuation. The first scheme is self-adaptation and repositioning to the new circumstances, preferably in a dearly needed configuration of multilateralism for tackling global challenges such as environment or social inequalities.
This first scheme is definitely a huge, unprecedented task, not only for leaders anywhere in the world but for mankind anywhere as well. Although we can see few initiatives and ambitions for this direction, will it be sufficient to withstand or at least balance the second scheme in operation now ? Switching from numbers and healthy competitiveness towards a battle of faith….
The faith of sinophobia has meticulously been put as a new pillar in Western exceptionalism for quite some time now to protect the ‘ideology’ and providing support to Western political agendas. Numbers, facts or proof are often not needed anymore or circumstances and perspectives are being fabricated by institutes and individuals to carry out sinophobia. This without further questioning or learning, and preaches by politicians are becoming more passionate and aggressive by the day. All for maintaining the ‘grace’ of Western exceptionalism.
But who is actually the enemy and where are the threats ? Might it not be a good idea to look inward, into the mirror with the heads straight up and eyes wide open once in a while for seeking answers to this question ?
But this seems impossible nowadays, the word of faith and exceptionalism cannot be questioned…. while numbers and facts could have…
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It seems that the Western confidence for participating in “the global competitive game” of trade, technology, commerce, innovation or environment is crumbling. Seemingly incapable to adapt and change, Western nations are moving inward and sitting on ideologies and principles while building up military budgets. The UK announced their largest military budget since the cold war last week, this amidst the unparalleled economic crisis by the pandemic.
All this instead of picking up the unique opportunity during ‘this year of change’ to reach out for a new phase of global collaboration to build a better, sustainable future altogether for our children and the environment.
An utterly dangerous evolvement, remember again the context by Cambridge historian Christopher Munro Clark referring to WWI;
“Is the world sleep walking ? Watchful but unseeing, haunted by dreams (or faith), yet blind to the reality of bringing potential horror to the world”.
Or following remarkable words by Graham Allison, American political scientist and writer of “Destined For War: Can America and China escape Thucydides’s Trap” (2017) when he was referring to the rising political tensions between the USA and Japan in 1930’s leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 during WWII;
“We should remember that when we say something is inconceivable, this is not a claim about what is possible in the world, but rather about what our minds can conceive”
Which leader will stand up and diverse the course of ‘sleepwalking’ and era of sinophobia faith ? Reaching out a hand and preaching multilateralism, the need for structural change, and taking responsibility for an inclusive future which the current generations owe to our children and the environment.
It is not too late (yet)….
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Gordon Dumoulin, Beijing 2020–12–04
References, inspiration and extracts from among others following sources : https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3110734/china-us-relations-biden-should-avoid-trump-eras-three-traps https://www.thinkchina.sg/liberalism-and-globalisation-serves-elites-world-needs-return-nation-state https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/1903455/quick-guide-chinas-diplomatic-levels https://asiatimes.com/2020/11/us-china-sleepwalking-towards-world-war-iii/
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.