Thirty-one years ago, in the year 1989, there happened the Tiananmen Square shooting. It must have left scores of dead people who were demonstrating against their government, but no one knows the actual figure because it is the policy of the Chinese government not to give out information it considers internal matters that should concern no one else.
And it was fifty years
ago––which would be nineteen years before Tiananmen––that the Kent State
Massacre happened in America; a tragedy in which four students demonstrating
against the Vietnam War, were shot dead by the Ohio National Guard, and a
number of other students were wounded.
An aggrieved world talked
about the two incidents when they happened in the usual tone of sadness while
imploring both governments to be more careful how they handle peaceful
demonstrations by their citizens.
Fast forward to ten months ago
or thereabout when the world was hit by the Corona virus which, thanks to the
ease of travel in the modern era, spread throughout the planet faster than any
pandemic the world had ever experienced previously. There is very little doubt
that the virus originated in China, and there lies the nature of the
controversy that has erupted.
There are those in America who
argue that the Chinese habit of considering such things to be internal matters
that cannot be divulged to the world, has caused the spread of the pandemic. On
the other hand, the Chinese have admitted, though reluctantly, that the virus
may have originated with them, but they blame its rapid spread on the foreign
governments that did not take it seriously enough to institute the necessary
measures that would have slowed its spread.
It is not difficult to imagine
that this kind of controversy will continue, and will be talked about for
decades to come. And so, we leave it to future historians to pass the
definitive judgment as to what really happened, and who might have been
responsible for the misery that the pandemic has caused to the world. What
should concern us at this point is the rise of a process of deterioration, the
likes of which was never seen before.
You get a sense of how much
things have deteriorated when you go over the piece that came under the title:
“China's reputation takes a well-deserved global hit,” an editorial in the
Washington Examiner that was published on October 9, 2020. Instead of seeing
the usual grieving and the friendly advice that's meant to counsel the
governments on how to deal with dissent, you get mugged by the editors of the
Examiner who began their discussion by celebrating what they see as the “silver
lining” to a pandemic they acknowledge has “killed more than a million people
and crashed the global economy.” What a horrific mentality!
That's what it takes, you say
to yourself––a million dead people and a crashed global economy––to bring joy
to the hearts of America's elites nowadays. In fact, the editors of the
Washington Examiner relish the fact that some of America's closest allies have
increased their unfavorable rating of China from the low 60% of the population
to the mid 70% of the population. Hallelujah!
If anything, to be so happy
about “small mercies,” is an indication of how impotent the Americans now feel
when they compare themselves to China, the rising power they can no longer
influence. Whereas it used to be that to feel good about themselves, the
Americans compared what they did well against what China could not do as well,
they now rely on China making mistakes that diminish its accomplishments in the
eyes of foreigners whose admiration America needs to assume the role of world
leadership.
When you come down to it, the
level of degradation that America has undergone, is forcing it to complain the
same way that the Third World countries used to complain about the advanced
economies exploiting them and then neglecting them. And when you consider that
China was a Third World country not long ago, you cannot miss the irony you see
in the reversal that has taken place and has progressed so rapidly. The
following is a condensed version of the editors' complaint:
“The Chinese have responded
with typical arrogance to the results. They declared that they don't want bad
relations with Western countries, but will not exchange China's interests for
the West’s goodwill which is not valuable to them. China's deteriorating
reputation also reflects its broader disdain for the international community
and its norms. It demands that foreign businesses sacrifice their secrets in
exchange for access to its 1.4 billion-person market; introduces tariffs on
foreign goods to retaliate against nations that draw attention to its human
rights record; bullies poorer nations by offering investment in return for
political deference. Beijing exploited the early shortages during the pandemic
to sell billions of dollars-worth of flawed protective equipment. The Chinese
also believe they can do no wrong”.
Whatever Charles Darwin meant
when he said “survival to the fittest,” the accepted interpretation now is that
nature grants survival to the adaptable more so than the fit.
In fact, Britain has survived
and thrived after the Second World War because it adapted to the new situation
by handing the baton of world leadership to America, and becoming its ally.
Had Britain armed itself and
stayed on the path of trying to rule the waves, it would have bankrupted itself
and suffered the fate of the Ottoman Empire.
Similarly, if America wants to survive and continue to have some influence in world affairs, it must accept and adapt to a situation in which China and a number of other powers will rival it, even surpass it.