By Nirmal P. Acharya
On March 18, 2021, China and the US held a high-level strategic dialogue in Alaska. Yang Jiechi, then head of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee, said “The US isn’t qualified to ‘speak from a position of strength’ when criticising China in front of China.” This was in effect an official Chinese refusal to recognize US hegemony.
Earlier this year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi publicly denounced “the US attempt to regain hegemony.” In fact, this shows that in the eyes of Chinese officials, the US has lost its hegemony but has been attempting to regain hegemony, and China is determined to prevent the US from succeeding in this attempt.
China’s refusal to recognize US hegemony comes from two aspects, one is its strategic firmness, and the other is its comprehensive strength.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the West partied. The West is completely gone with the wind and thinks “history is over”. China, on the other hand, is determined to subvert the unipolar hegemony of the US by taking a hard time and hiding its capabilities.
The struggle against hegemonism has been extremely difficult throughout the history of the People’s Republic of China for more than 70 years.
The US has launched a hot war (such as the Korean War), a trade war, a biological war, a science and technology war and a public opinion war against China, which has backfired, but has honed and reshaped the Chinese nation and made it increasingly stronger.
When Director Yang Jiechi told the US in the face that “the US is not qualified to negotiate with China from a position of strength”, the US seemed to suddenly realize that China aims to subvert the US unipolar hegemony.
But it will be too late for America. Because China has become the largest industrial country, its scientific and technological strength is also catching up with and surpassing the US, its military strength is also enough to compete with the US, its financial firewall is strong and financial sovereignty is in hand, and its young generation can fully look at the US without being brainwashed by the US.
The global game has reached a point where the fate of US unipolar hegemony will soon be revealed.
The fate of the MCC will be revealed in tandem with the fate of US unipolar hegemony.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
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