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The Chinese Empire Is Doomed To Go The Way of The American Empire

No hegemon ever learns from the mistakes of its predecessors.

By Adebayo AdeniranPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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Alana Harris image via unsplash

On the 30th of August 2021, Major General Donahue became the last serving American soldier to leave Afghanistan.

The image which has now gone viral several times over around the world, is being seen rightly or wrongly as the symbol of the irreversible decline of the American empire, the moment at which, the United States ceded its position as the world's police man to the People's Republic of China.

Thus far, a vast number of right wing commentators, obviously acting at the request of their paymasters, have whipped up a high degree of hysteria about President Biden's decision and written quite incisively about what this means for the long term prospects of democracy, "western values and liberal interventionism" across the globe in the 21st century.

But despite the abundance of resources at our disposal, it's extraordinary that the one thing which we have all failed to do is to pay great attention to history.

For it was George Santayana who said the following words:

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

The British Empire and its role in creating the American monster

Even though it was well behind the likes of Portugal and Spain in the acquisition of foreign territories, Britain more than made up for lost time and over the course of two centuries, by engaging in wars with France and Spain and achieving strategic trade-offs, which led to the land swap deals with the Dutch and routing the French out of India and North America.

The loss of the war of Independence to America notwithstanding, Britain made up for this setback by acquiring more territory in Africa and Asia.

Just as it was with the Roman empire, Britain's decline came not in one day, but by seriously overextending itself in a series of wars fought in the twentieth century. By the time Germany surrendered to the allies in 1945, Britain was completely spent as a global force. The turn of events led to the tidal wave of decolonization across Africa and Asia and more importantly, Britain's loss of identity from which it has yet to recover.

Great Britain's sunset gave way to America's sun rise.

As the colonizer of the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland provided the economic, philosophic and intellectual template on which the American empire has conducted its business, from its independence till date.

The role of British intellectuals such as Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, Adam Ferguson, David Hume and John Locke can never be overstated on the founding fathers of the United States; Indeed their influence is felt in the federalist papers, bill of rights and in the most sacred document of all - The American constitution.

The American experiment was aggressively expansionist in its mindset and just as it saw its former colonizer exert its power and influence over the world, America sought to do the same. The purchase of Louisiana, Texas and Florida from the French and Spanish simply underscores this salient point.

The Monroe Doctrine, whose objective was to keep European powers out of the Americas also gave an indication of US's global aspirations. This is best summed up in the excerpt from the document, largely authored by John Quincy Adams.

We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power, we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.

Anyone with a basic knowledge of American history will appreciate the power of the Monroe Doctrine in the second half of the twentieth century. For it was the United States of America, not Portugal nor Spain, who determined how countries like Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Guatemala, El-Salvador and Chile were governed.

And when these Latin American countries elected left wing parties to government to implement radical socialist policies, the US didn't think twice about sponsoring coups to depose them. A case in point was what happened on the 11th of September 1973, when the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende was overthrown by the American backed forces of Augusto Pinochet.

And just as the Roman and British empire came unstuck from overextending themselves in fighting too many wars, so has the American empire, in the twenty-first century, with its endless wars and huge debt to its biggest rival -China.

The Irresistible, Inexorable Economic Preponderance of China

It is estimated that the People's Republic of China is poised to overtake the American Economy between 2031 and never.

If power purchasing parity was the only basis of measuring a nation's economic size, then China will be regarded as the global economic hegemon, but other factors come into consideration such as income per capita, debt to GDP ratio etc.

Since the turn of the new century, China's overreach on the global stage has been nothing short of extraordinary; It has practically colonized vast swathes of Africa with its cheap loans to various governments. There isn't a country among the former British colonies where CCECC (Chinese state construction company) isn't responsible for its infrastructural projects.

In Zambia, a number of its largest copper mines are in the hands of CCP bureaucrats. A city called Hawassa in Ethiopia houses the largest clothes factory outside of China, which employs under aged girls as employees to make clothing for the likes of Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger etc. I wrote about this in an article a few months ago.

Across the Caribbean and Latin America, the story is the same, with Jamaica, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago and impoverished Venezuela all lining up to receive China's money and letting it set up shop in their countries.

To be fair, this isn't any different in the west as PRC has through reverse mergers taken over the ownership of a number of companies quoted on the stock exchange. The fraudulent means by which the numerous acquisitions of American companies took place was exposed in the documentary titled: "The China Hustle".

With its reach and economic influence stretching to every corner of the globe, it suffices to say that the Chinese empire is in full swing.

This leaves us with the question, where does it leave China and the rest of the world?

China isn't at all oblivious of the extraordinary power that it now wields on the global stage. If anything, it actively courts it. Its spending on military infrastructure is second only to the country, that it is on the cusp of supplanting.

With America leaving behind a huge void in Afghanistan which the Taliban have now filled, the new overlords are making serious overtures to China with highly seductive rhetoric, calling it, its most important partner. There is no doubt that there's every chance that this relationship will evolve into something different over time, with either party wanting so much more.

Screen Shot from my Instagram account

The People's Republic of China's global ambition and aspirations are shaped by the trauma from its years of occupation by the Japanese and the United Kingdom, when it was bombed into accepting British Opium and ceding its Hong Kong territory for one hundred and fifty years.

Owing to its inferiority complex, China will seek to outdo Britain and America by imposing its unique brand of imperialism on the world, which will inevitably create new sets of problems, for everyone.

It isn't at all unrealistic to state that in seeking to consolidate its power globally, it will make new enemies and fight wars on several fronts and in doing so, it will overextend itself, thereby suffering the same fate as its predecessors.

If history has taught us anything, it is that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat the mistakes made previously.

The Chinese Empire isn't an exception.

opinion
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About the Creator

Adebayo Adeniran

A lifelong bibliophile, who seeks to unleash his energy on a number of subjects

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