Francis Fukuyama, in his 1989 “The End of History” article, argued that the last ideological alternative to liberalism had been eliminated. The imminent collapse of the Soviet Union, China’s embrace of market reforms, Soviet Union’s promise of non-interference in the Eastern Bloc states, Cuba and other states in its orbit of influence led him to this conclusion. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
The West expected China to embrace political reform as a natural follow-up of its economic reforms. Thirty years down the line, China has morphed into a twenty-first century Orwellian state. It has the characteristics of a Nazi state – Han Chinese militant nationalism, territorial expansionism, surveillance, concentration camps, etc. Unlike the Communist Party of Soviet Union, the Communist Party of China has been successful in embracing market reforms and bringing prosperity to its subjects (although unsustainable levels of income inequality persist). What truly differentiates China from any other past and present totalitarian regimes is its ample use of technology to meet its political ends. China’s superlative strengths in cyber warfare, its long arm reach in silencing dissidents, its nuclear black market have finally nudged the great powers out of their slumber. There is a never ending list of China’s sins of omission and commission, that the Western countries had turned a blind eye to, and some of them continue to do so.
The nuclear black market runs with China as the focal point. China has had either a direct or indirect role in nuclear arming North Korea, Pakistan and Iran. It has also supplied dual-use technologies to countries like Libya and Egypt which have openly expressed desire for nuclear arms. Yet China continues to occupy the high table of the most influential world grouping dealing with nuclear technology- The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). China has continued these actions with impunity, despite signing the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and joining the NSG. China continues nuclear testing despite signing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
China continues to be the fountainhead of human violations across the world. Ethnic conflict in Darfur, religious strife in Central African Republic, Red terrorism in India, Islamofascism and jihad in Afghanistan, etc have two commonalities: Resource-rich regions and Chinese funding in keeping the pot boiling. Oil in Darfur, gold in Central African Republic, coltan in Congo have fallen into the Chinese hands.
China’s creeping invasion of the developed world is less known. Propaganda through Confucius Institutes, training of PLA scientists in Western universities, social media propaganda, cultivating pro-China business and political lobbies are some of the tactics the Chinese have employed, straight out of the ancient Chinese military treatise, The Art of War, by Sun Tzu.
Methods used by Chinese in relatively stable but authoritarian states have been far less sophisticated. Top level leaderships of many authoritarian regimes have been compromised by Chinese money. Tajikistan’s border dispute resolution with China is one of many examples of top leadership trampling on their national interest in exchange for Chinese money.
The COVID-19 pandemic has belatedly woken up the rest of the world to the threat posed by China: A totalitarian, racist, rogue regime, that seeks world domination. The world is facing a Nazi regime on steroids. There is no better time for the great democracies of the world: India, EU, Australia, USA and Japan, to forge a united front against the Chinese regime, and prevent major countries from becoming tributary states of the middle kingdom.
