A panicky West fears losing it all to China
Kendrick Lamar in his song Fear neatly sums up the dilemma the US and the West is facing: “At 27, my biggest fear was losin’ it all.”
The US-led West fears ceding hegemonic power and influence over the world in favour of countries like China. As their fear grows, the more desperate their decisions and actions become. It would be all good if those of us in the underdeveloped world were just spectators, but the entire world’s security and economy will be directly under threat.
Since the loss of Donald Trump to Joe Biden in the 2020 US presidential elections, the Biden administration has been leading us to a showdown between the West on one side and China and Russia on the other. Being anti-Russia has been cultivated over decades during the Cold War, and brought back to the fore because the Democratic Party in the US blamed Russia for Hillary Clinton losing to Trump in the 2016 elections.
With China, it required a more sophisticated navigation. The platform had been established by Trump when he drummed up anti-China sentiment in response to the Covid pandemic.
When Biden entered office he deliberately fuelled tensions in and around Ukraine. During the 2020 election campaign, Trump made allegations about Biden’s son, Hunter, soliciting funds from the Ukrainian government for Biden when he was Barack Obama’s vice-president. The information was said to originate from e-mails on Hunter Biden’s laptop. However, suspicion was cast on the veracity of the e-mails by various intelligence experts, who said the e-mails might have been tampered with by Russian agents.
After the elections this was proven false. None of the e-mails were tampered with; Biden though was also cleared of any corruption. The point is that Biden, regardless of the clearing of corruption allegations, was quite hawkish about Ukraine, in contrast to Obama, who regarded Ukraine as not central to US national interests though it was under Obama’s presidency in February 2014 that the democratically elected Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who was close to Russia, was ousted. Many believe his ousting was engineered by the CIA. However, Obama refused to press forward US and Nato interests with Ukraine, because in his view it was not a matter of national interest to the US.
Biden, though, did. Within a year, he appointed Victoria Nuland as the under-secretary of state for political affairs. Nuland was the US’s lead point person in Ukraine when Yanukovych was ousted. From the moment Biden entered the Oval Office, it was clear that Ukraine occupied a central role —a marked departure from the Obama and Trump administrations.
The Biden presidency deliberately ignored repeated warnings from Russia that any designs for Ukraine joining Nato would be regarded as acts of aggression. Indeed, then-British prime minister and US ally Boris Johnson scuppered promising peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in April 2023. There was a good chance of a comprehensive peace agreement being reached between Russia and Ukraine in exchange for
Ukrainian neutrality. Johnson told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: “You shouldn’t sign anything with them at all and let’s just fight.”
The US has encouraged Ukraine to “just fight” by providing billions of dollars for arms and even granting permission for US arms to be launched onto Russian soil.
Over the last few months though, especially since the visit of US secretary of state Anthony Blinken to China, it has become clearer that US (and EU) support for Ukraine is not just directed at Russia, but could be a pretext for open aggression towards China. Blinken’s visit to China in April was aggressive, belligerently warning China of dire consequences, and setting out the playbook the US would be following. He expected US allies to follow suit, saying:
Chinese trading and close relations with Russia would be regarded as an act of aggression against the West. China would be perceived as aiding and abetting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, as long as China supports Russia, it will be as responsible for the war in Ukraine.
The Chinese military and naval presence in the South China Sea area must decrease. It was not just Taiwan that was raised as a concern but also the Philippines, where the US plans to open American bases.
Chinese technological advancement,
especially in the field of electric vehicles and batteries, is perceived as a direct threat to the US. Unless the Chinese share their technology and their goods are not cheaper than the US’s and the EU’s, it will be regarded as unfair trade practice.
Although the Brics countries are not named, it is clear the US is concerned with the growing role of Brics in global matters of politics and security. The inclusion of Iran in Brics and Iranian geopolitical proximity to the escalated tensions in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen is an added encumbrance for the US as is the US’s historical ally Saudi Arabia’s membership of Brics and its increased trade with Russia and China.
The G7 met in June 2024 and reinforced Blinken’s demands. Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank, said the EU should be less “passive” in the face of the threat from China.
A number of other decisions reinforced Blinken’s statements. The G7 responded to the increasing Russian and Chinese involvement in Africa by dangling the carrot of the creation of a Sub-Saharan chair on the IMF executive board, as well as permanent membership for the AU in the G20. They called out the Russian-backed Wagner Group, accusing it of being a desatabilising force. Russia has supported local populations of former French colonies in West Africa against France by providing security and defence through the Wagner Group, while China has increased trade in
those African countries.
Another key announcement was that confiscated Russian assets amounting to $50bn (about R900bn) would be used to purchase arms for Ukraine.
By now the EU has announced a range of customs duties on Chinese electric vehicles, ranging from 17.4%-37.6%. This was over and above the 10% duty already placed on Chinese vehicles. It affected all Chinese electric vehicles, even European brands like Volvo which is owned by Chinese car manufacturer Geely. Europe has revealed that their support of the US is complete!
We need to understand that every single hotspot in the world leads us back to the West fighting tooth and nail to ensure that their hegemonic power and influence is not rolled back. Whoever wins the US elections in November, they will expect China to step back and kiss the proverbial ring of the US, pledging their undying loyalty, paying the necessary tithes and accepting US leadership or face the consequences thereof.
The Athenian historian and general Thucydides wrote in the 5th century BC: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.” The US and its allies fear losing it all because of the rise of China, making World War 3 a probable reality.