JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: AMERICA AND CHINA – ONLY ONE SOURCE FOR THE CONFLICT – NATIONS ONCE REGARDED AS MENACING NOW WELCOME COOPERATION – AMERICA AND EUROPE – AMERICA AND LATIN AMERICA – AMERICA IN DENIAL OF MANY UNPLEASANT FACTS – PROGRESS DOES NOT COME FROM BEING ARMED TO THE TEETH – HUMANITY’S ENGINE FOR PROGRESS – THE ROLE OF CRUSADER PRINCE IS BEING WRITTEN OUT OF THE PLAY WITH A NEW CAST OF CHARACTERS

John Chuckman


COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN GLOBAL TIMES


“Tensions with US not China’s fault: Foreign Minister Wang Yi”


We would all like to see improved relations between China and the US.

But from where has all the motivating impulse for degrading them come?

It is not from China that we hear about notions like “decoupling,” or that we have ugly accusations about the misfortunes of a terrible disease, or that new illegal sanctions are announced weekly, or that we see withdrawal from many international organizations promoting peace and cooperation.

Those originate with only one party, America.

And the reason for such hostility is clear. America is simply not equipped to accept gracefully the success and rise of China. It is fearful of China’s ability to compete. And it is the same for any other competitor or potential competitor. Certainly, for Russia where every effort is made to impede its progress, from rendering its borders insecure down to trying to control its sale of resources such as natural gas to its neighbors.

That’s why Europe remains occupied three-quarters of a century after the world war. That’s why NATO has been expanded thirty years after the disappearance of the Soviet Union.

That’s why an arbitrary dogma like the Monroe Doctrine still plays a role in Latin America two centuries after an American in a frock coat announced it, a man who also owned a plantation worked by teams of slaves.

America’s power establishment has had control of almost all international organizations and arrangements since the end of WWII, and it is a bit frightened of losing that close-to-absolute power, as it inevitably must in an expanding and greatly diversifying world.

We cannot even pretend now that what we see in our world are the forces of American democracy and respect for rights versus a dark and frightening colossus, as communism was once regarded. That world, the foundation for so many institutions and arrangements, just does not exist anymore.

The world is becoming far more complex than such notions allow, and everyone with some understanding can see it. Those notions are still attractive to many in America because they put America in the role of crusader prince, but that role is simply being written out of a play which has a new cast of characters.

No, we see, by contrast now, plenty of darkness coming from America itself, both at home and in its activity abroad, and we see countries once regarded as menacing now operate as rational, understandable places whose pursuit of success is welcome to improving the world’s prosperity and cooperation.

America is in denial of many unpleasant facts – its overwhelming inequality, its brutality at home, its widespread prejudices, its money-driven politics, and the extreme violence it imposes on a great many other places in the world. Speeches from politicians or newspaper editorials cannot change what is plainly dark back into Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.”

Nations formerly regarded as menacing by America welcome business and trade from everywhere. They welcome cooperation. No one sensible can speak against that. That is humanity’s engine for progress.

Progress does not come from a place armed to the teeth and constantly making menacing gestures.