We are told that security in the Middle East requires defeating Iran, security in East Asia requires defeating China, and security in Europe requires defeating Russia. We never discuss security in terms of how to learn to live together by harmonising interests and managing competition. This is by design. This is hegemonic peace, in which security depends on defeating rivals rather than managing a balance of power.
Subsequently, security relies solely on deterrence rather than reassurance; diplomacy is dismissed as appeasement; peace agreements are temporary and deceptive; and war is peace. Our rivals do not have legitimate security concerns, as their policies are allegedly always motivated by aggressive, irrational, or expansionist behaviour.
We have convinced ourselves that our liberal hegemony is a force for good, and that our opponents oppose our dominance because they reject our benign values of freedom. Discussing the security concerns of adversaries is believed to “legitimise” their policies, which is treasonous. The world is divided into good guys (liberal democracies) and bad guys (autocracies). We should not ask how defeating Russia, as the world's largest nuclear power, is a rational security strategy, or why our governments refuse to even speak with Moscow to discuss the European security architecture and end the war. Our governments have relabelled nuclear deterrence as nuclear blackmail to signal that there can be no more constraints.
All empires can become irrational during decline. Leaders take greater risks to avoid decline, legitimacy crises at home must be distracted with enemies abroad, outdated strategies from a bygone era of strength are still embraced, and there is a tendency to double down on narratives of being indispensable, representing universal values, and dismissing all opposition as illegitimate and dangerous. Are we the fanatics?
@dudiaohan1 Never trust the West for their LIES. How did this Payne lady know?? China was closed to the world. The only way she knew was from third party’s accounts and those could be the warlords and rich Chinese that lost all to the COC and ran from China and made up stories for their loss
China’s reckless military aggression isn’t strength—it’s intimidation dressed up as policy. Bullying neighbors and flexing power only isolates you further. The world sees through it.
@Israelwaronhama You idiot!!! CIA murdered her and covered it as a suicide!!!! And that is the truth. But it’s buried. Well… karma will work on the ones that did those atrocities.
@kosoku_y@TrulyUnatractv@ankoromochuu You take a good look at what your country has done first. How moronic can you be!!! Your killing of Chinese during WW2. What the fuck are you fucking smoking!!!!
@Jeffrey61690406@Glenn_Diesen China is never complicated. The west made it complicated so they will try to suppress China’s growth. The complication comes when whatever the west tries, China seems to be oblivious and succeed even more. The west pushed Iran too hard not the other way.
@Glenn_Diesen I disagree. I think we should have stronger relations with Russia. I think we pushed them too far. I think Iran is a entirely different story. They pushed us too hard.
China is complicated.
Chinese Foreign Ministry: Recent bomb threats and break-ins against China reveal 'serious problems' in Japan
What a “civilized nation” the world is constantly told to admire:
always humble in posture,
always gentle in tone,
yet the Chinese embassy was threatened with a bomb by Japanese fascists.
Chinese nationals get targeted,
and even a serving SDF officer can carry a knife into the embassy and attempt to kill diplomats.
And Japan’s response?
Downplay it.
Excuse it.
Deny it.
Rationalize it.
Counterattack.
Then complain about being “bullied” by China.
So much politeness.
So much civilization.
They stole etiquette, tea ceremony, writing, architecture, institutions, and aesthetics from China,
but they will never possess honesty, responsibility, or reflection.
That is the difference between true civilization and a parasite dressed up as one.
China’s Foreign Ministry responded coldly to Trump’s threats: China opposes unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law or authorization from the UN Security Council.
In other words:
China is not South Korea, Japan, or a pack of NATO clients trained to bark on command.
Washington has spent years confusing its own coercive toolkit with global consensus, only to discover that most of the world has no interest in setting its economy on fire just to satisfy American geopolitical theater.
Russia did not collapse the way they fantasized.
And China is not Russia.
China’s economic scale, industrial depth, trade networks, and strategic resilience are in a completely different category.
Trump already lost this fight twice.
Now the more Washington threatens, the more it pushes China to decouple on its own terms.
This is the real source of American hysteria:
it cannot win fairly,
it cannot compel obedience indefinitely,
and it cannot force a sovereign China to kneel.
That is why the tantrums keep escalating.
Because China is too large to bully, too industrialized to strangle, and too sovereign to kneel.