China's Formula to Defeat Western Hegemony

Updated May 2018

In the past, I have quoted from Global Times, China's unofficial English-language mouthpiece for the nation's Communist leadership.  In a recent Op-Ed, the author looks at the recent actions taken by the West against Russia for their alleged poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.  Let's look at some excerpts from the piece entitled "Russian diplomat expulsions signal crude side of Western intention". 

Here is the opening paragraph which sets the stage for the commentary:

"On March 26, the US, Canada, and several European Union countries expelled Russian diplomats from their respective foreign embassies and consulates in retaliation against Russia's alleged poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.  As of this writing, 19 countries, including 15 EU member states, have shown their support to Great Britain by enforcing such measures."

Let's move on:

"The British government did not provide evidence that linked Russia to the crime but was confident from the beginning there could be no other "reasonable explanation" for the attempted assassination. Great Britain was so convinced of their Russia theory, they wasted no time taking the lead in levying sanctions against the country by quickly expelling Russian diplomats from London.  Shortly afterwards, UK capital officials reached out to NATO and their European allies who provided immediate support. 

The accusations that Western countries have hurled at Russia are based on ulterior motives, similar to how the Chinese use the expression "perhaps it's true" to seize upon the desired opportunity. From a third-person perspective, the principles and diplomatic logic behind such drastic efforts are flawed, not to mention that expelling Russian diplomats almost simultaneously is a crude form of behavior. Such actions make little impact other than increasing hostility and hatred between Russia and their Western counterparts.

The UK government should have an independent investigation conducted into the Skripal poisoning by representatives from the international community. An effort such as this would provide results strong enough for those following the case to make up their minds on who should or shouldn't be accused of the crime. Now, the majority of those who support Britain's one-sided conclusion happen to be members of NATO and the EU, while others stood behind the UK due to long-standing relations."

The author goes on to note the disparity in how the West treats nations outside of NATO and the European Union:

"The fact that major Western powers can gang up and "sentence" a foreign country without following the same procedures other countries abide by and according to the basic tenets of international law is chilling. During the Cold War, not one Western nation would have dared to make such a provocation and yet today it is carried out with unrestrained ease. Such actions are nothing more than a form of Western bullying that threatens global peace and justice. 

Over the past few years the international standard has been falsified and manipulated in ways never seen before. The fundamental reason behind reducing global standards is rooted in post-Cold War power disparities. The US, along with their allies, jammed their ambitions into the international standards so their actions, which were supposed to follow a set of standardized procedures and protocol, were really nothing more than profit-seizing opportunities designed only for themselves.  These same Western nations activated in full-force public opinion-shaping platforms and media agencies to defend and justify such privileges.

As of late, more foreign countries have been victimized by Western rhetoric and nonsensical diplomatic measures. In the end, the leaders of these nations are forced to wear a hat featuring slogans and words that read "oppressing their own people," "authoritarian," or "ethnic cleansing," regardless of their innocence." (my bold)

The hypocritical way that the United States (and the rest of the West for that matter) treats the so-called less-developed BRICS nations has not gone unnoticed by China's leadership.

Let's look at China's solution to American/Western/European hegemony:

"Right now is the perfect time for non-Western nations to strengthen unity and collaborative efforts among one another. These nations need to establish a level of independence outside the reach of Western influence while breaking the chains of monopolization declarations, predetermined adjudications, and come to value their own judgement abilities.

It's already understood that to achieve such international collective efforts is easier said than done as they require foundational support before anything can happen. Until a new line of allies emerges, multi-national associations like BRICS, or even the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, need to provide value to those non-Western nations and actively create alliances with them....

  

More importantly, the international community should have the tools and means to counterbalance such actions.

The West is only a small fraction of the world and is nowhere near the global representative it once thought it was.  The silenced minorities within the international community need to realize this and prove just how deep their understanding is of such a realization by proving it to the world through action." (my bold)

Let's look at the twenty-first century geopolitical and geoeconomic reality.  Here is a table showing the top 30 global economies in current prices:

If measured using purchasing power parity (PPP) valuations, things change slightly as shown here:

When using this measure, the economies of China and India, two of the BRICS member nations, surpass that of the United States by a very wide margin of $13.207 trillion.  It is also interesting to note that the economy of the United Kingdom, a world power in the last century and the nation that is the focus of the recent anti-Russia rhetoric, is relatively insignificant, falling behind the economies of Russia, Indonesia and Brazil.

Here is a graphic showing what each nation contributes as a percentage of the world's total economy:

Here is a table showing how, over the past five decades, the U.S. economy has contributed less and less as a percentage of total global GDP:

While in nominal terms, the U.S. economy has grown over the past five decades, since 1968 when U.S. GDP comprised 37.3 percent of the global economy, it has fallen to its current level of 24.58 percent (2016), a drop of 34.1 percent.

Now, let's look at the future.  Here is what PriceWaterhouseCoopers has to say about China's role in the future (measured using GDP at PPPs):

PwC notes that the seven largest economies of the emerging market nations (E7) will grow at twice the rate of the seven nations of the G7 over the next three decades and that six of the world's seven largest economies will be today's emerging economies.  By 2050, the 27 nations of the EU will be contributing less than 10 percent of global GDP with the United Kingdom falling to10th place, becoming an even less significant player on the world stage.  

Lastly, here is a graphic showing how global economic power will shift from the advanced nations to the emerging nations:

The op-ed from the Global Times points out a key fact; by bulling the BRICS nations now, the United States, United Kingdom and other nations who have been involved in the anti-Russia fingerpointing are attacking a wasps' nest with a stick.  The influence of the West is waning, the American Empire is failing and, in desperation, are lashing out in an attempt to retain their positions of power.  God help us all when Russia and China decide that the only way to control the United States and their allies is to join together.  China's proposed formula to defeat Western hegemony is one that should cause our elected leaders to ponder the wisdom of their recent anti-Russia rhetoric.