US, Decline of Hegemonic Power and Escalation of Conflict with China

Two days after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush declared war on terrorism. He said, “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”

Donald Trump picked up on that idea more belligerently in January 2017. The day he took office, he announced that he would withdraw from the free trade agreements known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, NAFTA, Trans Pacific, Trans Atlantic, and the one signed with Canada and Mexico, respectively. He also said he would fight to reduce the trade deficit with China and if that “doesn’t provide the expected outcome, when my time in office is over, all Chinese products coming into the country will have a 45% tariff.”*

In that moment, Trump outlined one of is main policy ideas, to stop the growth and presence of China to repair the weakened hegemonic leadership of his country.

In that sense, he advanced a trade war, applying tariffs and sanctioning companies and officials. Trump developed a protectionist and nationalist policy, weakening his government and withdrawing from several international organizations such as UNESCO, the Paris climate agreement, missile agreements, the World Health Organization and the International Criminal Court. The path was clear, and the main obstacle was China.

China not only doesn’t “obey the rules,” but collaborates with governments that are blocked and sanctioned by Washington, such as Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. Those policies drove him to threaten adversaries, subdue “friends,” and pressure allies, as is the case with Angela Merkel, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

This week, Mike Pompeo called out to the Western world from Copenhagen and invited them to join the fight against the Chinese danger. Speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, he harangued the Chinese people and demanded changes in the Communist Party, calling what the Chinese government is doing “tyranny.”

In a sense, the administration is showing its rage and impotence by deploying aircraft carriers to the South China Sea, threatening to invade Venezuela and destroy Iran. When an empire has to resort to military force as an option it is because it has lost all its power to dominate the cultural, economic, financial and technological spheres, among others.

In this context, on Tuesday, the Trump administration ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, one of the five that exist in the U.S. The U.S. claimed there China was responsible for espionage, and theft of scientific research and private information. Evidence? None so far.

In response, China’s Foreign Ministry revoked the license of the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Friday to forbid the consulate from operating, it also being one of the five consulates that exist in China. Th Chengdu consulate, home to 200 officials, is one of the most important consulates as it deals with matters from the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, the Tibet Autonomous Region and Chongqing, of great interest to America and its geopolitical strategy.

Here is some key information:

• COVID-19 revealed the health, economic and social failures of a system based upon market absolutism;

• An empire that ignores the rules of its own game, rules it imposed after World War II, does so because it is helpless;

• China leads the way in the evolution of new technology and especially in productive innovation, which makes it the main player in redrafting new rules going forward;

• Trump is at serious risk of losing the election on Nov. 3. There are several developing domestic crises including serious conflict in the power superstructure, economic and employment crises, police violence and a new outbreak of racism and separatism, protests against police authorities and, in the background, an indiscriminate catastrophe facing the system of health care;

• Trump appeals to his base by spreading fear in a highly manipulable and consumerist society, as he looks for an international scapegoat to justify his reelection, a virus of terrorism that has mutated into communism without the intervention of bats or pangolins;

• The president’s arrogance in saying this week that he doubts whether he will acknowledge the results of the upcoming election also prevents him from admitting that he lives in a multipolar and democratic world.

Ultimately, the behavior of the Trump administration is the natural response of a declining hegemonic power which reacts angrily to competition, a word much praised by those who admire the system that is now exploding.

*Editor’s note: This quote, accurately translated from the original, could not be verified.