“Sole” Superpower Already Defeated; US Steps Down from the Altar of Arrogance

The heated debate over whether or not America is in decline has called into question concerns and myths regarding U.S. strategy at the beginning of the 21st century.

When things reach an extreme, they must turn around; what rises must fall. There is nothing in the universe that isn’t like this, so that people, nations and events all manifest exactly the same behavior. From a historical perspective, even America cannot escape this iron law.

At precisely the time when America most considered itself to be unsurpassed, it was on the verge of falling from its highest point. The end of the Cold War put the U.S. in the position of being the world’s “sole” superpower, but waves of delusion about the “end of history” and neoconservatism have pushed America further into the pitfall of blindness and conceit. In the midst of showing off American “exceptionalism,” the U.S. concluded that there was nothing they could not do. This gradually evolved into a panoply of unilateral actions in contempt of the whole world. After 9/11, the two wars that America unleashed on Afghanistan and Iraq became the turning point that shattered the myth; subsequently, the disaster of America’s predicament was revealed.

There are differing opinions in the heated debate over whether or not the U.S. is in decline. American society is clearly polarizing, the economic recovery lacks vitality, partisan politics in the legislative and judicial mechanisms have increasingly pushed national development policies to the periphery and the country’s economic strength is no longer sufficient to support the military forces stationed throughout the world as “global police.” Meanwhile, the military strategy of fighting on two fronts has been forced to undergo some adjustments. The absurdly deceptive pretext on which the Iraq War was started has called into question the soft power of America’s morality in world affairs.

There is an unbearable cold at extreme heights. Regardless of whether they admit it or not, and with even less regard to their willingness to do so, the U.S. has already stepped down from the altar of insufferable arrogance.

America’s internal debate over whether they are in decline demonstrates a more candid reflection, but the reason for this lament is just to drive domestic and foreign policy changes that will allow them maintain their good position. When this topic is discussed by the international community, especially in Chinese society, America shows extreme sensitivity and is unable to cover up its disgust. The root cause of this kind of subtle discrepancy may lie in the fact that, in order to achieve their goal of “not taking second place in the world,” the U.S. must compulsively stimulate its military industrial complex and seek to establish “imaginary enemies” that might challenge its hegemony across the scope of the entire globe. Under these new circumstances, China, which has been experiencing ceaseless large-scale development, becomes the focal point of concern for U.S. global strategy. The U.S. Asia-Pacific strategic pivot, together with a lot of deceitful “sword-dancing,” was all undertaken in order to show that they are bouncing back, that they are not at all in decline.

In the long course of history, the rise and fall of great nations is a comprehensive process of evolution. Up until now, the U.S. has remained the world’s only superpower, and it will use every means at its disposal to prolong this legacy. At the very moment when its defeat is revealed, America is on the verge of reflexively deploying more unmanned drones, special military forces and showing its strength in new ways to hold its perceived enemies at bay, in order to preserve its position as world hegemon. However, it is impossible to hold back the erosive tides of time and obstruct the global trend toward multi-polarization. If the U.S. cannot take stock of the situation and instead blindly clings to the “politics of power,” remaining unable to eradicate the chronic diseases of superstitious belief in military power and the urge to misuse it, the result will be that, as it continues to slide, it will go further down that long, steep road.

*Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in People’s Daily, and was subsequently republished in electronic form by Xinhua.