Increasingly, it looks like every nation is an economic, geopolitical, and/or military enemy of China, once their national interests collide with Chinese interests. Remarkably, China is now also creating domestic adversaries.
I cannot imagine that China needs and/or wants such adversaries or enemies. Hence, the explanation must be about (extreme) beliefs. Such (extreme) beliefs might be rooted in arrogance and/or ignorance. Donald Trump is the best example of that rather rare combination.
Allegedly, the Russian president was ignorant about the Ukrainian hostility towards Russia. He believed that the 2022 invasion would only last a couple of days because Russian soldiers would be welcomed. Now his arrogance prevents his from reaching peace with the Ukrainian president.
Actually, Donald Trump also has a habit of creating many enemies. Probably, the famous quote by Lord Acton (1834-1902) applies:
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men […]”.
Source: 1887 letter by Lord Acton to Bishop Creighton
The consequences of creating many enemies is that such enemies will – ultimately – unite against their opponent. Hence, the recent proposal of an Asian NATO following the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue as held by Australia, India, Japan, and the United States since 2007.
I suppose that the above is the reason why the powerful though retired Chinese elder politicians are no longer silent towards the Chinese president (eg, Asia Nikkei, 29 August 2024). Moreover, the common prosperity slogan is turning China into common poverty (Bloomberg-2022).
While reading some articles, the following words struck me as relevant in the presidents of China, Russia and USA-Trump: (extreme) insecurities and paranoia. The absence of political legitimation may indeed cause such insecurities and paranoia (eg, The Hill-2023).
At least, Western democracies create the belief in political legitimation. In 2016, Trump did lose the popular vote, despite claiming the opposite (eg, NPR-2016). He did win the Electoral College despite “surprising and weird variances” in four key swing states (eg, CNN-2016, PR-2016, my 2018 blog).
Wishful Thinking (1984) by China Crisis
band, lyrics, video, Wiki-band, Wiki-song
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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