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US-China relations
CommentUnited States
S. George Marano
S. George Marano

Opinion | The Sino-US power struggle is not China’s to win, but the West’s to lose

  • US military adventurism and predatory capitalism are allowing Beijing to entice nations away, as China’s rise intersects with America’s decline
  • To turn things around, the US and its allies need a radical shift in their foreign policy thinking

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A US soldier points his gun at an Afghan man at Kabul airport on August 16 as thousands of people tried to flee Taliban rule. Photo: AFP
S. George Marano
With the rise of China, geopolitically as well as economically, the unipolar moment of US global domination appears to be fading. Washington and its allies have caused great enmity across the globe with the myopic belief that America’s sole superpower status is infinite, and its centrality permanent.
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With military adventurism and predatory capitalism, the West has created the conditions that have allowed China to slowly convert aggrieved nations into allies, increasing its geopolitical footprint.

Unabashed adventurism and the lack of diplomacy have been the key stand-outs for Washington since the fall of the Soviet Union. After 30 years, the winner’s curse has certainly befallen the United States, which is now wedged between domestic instability and its geoeconomic and geopolitical competition with China.

As historian Alfred McCoy says in his book, In the Shadows of the American Century, falling powers can do no right while rising powers can do no wrong. That observation is playing out as we speak. China’s transformation from economic to global power has intersected with the US’ geopolitical decline, with the Afghanistan saga the latest confirmation.

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so too does politics and power, and as the West creates these power vacuums, Beijing is being presented with the opportunity to fill them and increase its global influence.

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Taliban courts China with eye on development projects in Afghanistan

Taliban courts China with eye on development projects in Afghanistan

Following the West’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, a mix of opportunism and genuine safety concerns have seen China, and its allies Russia and Iran, quick to embrace a Taliban government. While it’s still unclear what a post-war Afghanistan will look like, expect Beijing to feature heavily.

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