China is no longer playing the role that many Western countries hoped it would be. In 1997, she pulled Asia out of the crisis. In 2008, it had served as a motor for the global recovery.
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It was again China which had allied itself with the Americans against the Taliban. It ended up joining the WTO and climate agreements.
But in a few years, China has become a factor of global instability.
It was she who sparked the COVID-19 pandemic crisis by hiding the seriousness of the transmission from the world. Yet she had suffered the painful experience of SARS in 2003 and its leaders had sworn that never again such a mess would occur.
China has benefited from multiple privileges because it was a developing economy. But as it has grown into the world’s largest economy, it continues to demand the same privileges for poor countries.
The Chinese rulers had signed an agreement that Beijing should not interfere in Hong Kong affairs until 2047. But the Chinese rulers entered Hong Kong internal affairs and they destabilized the city. Worse, they crushed the democratic movement there.
Now the Chinese government is turning to Taiwan. The island had nevertheless moved closer to mainland China. A modus vivendi had settled between Taipei and Peking. The conflict could have been resolved peacefully, allowing time to do its job. But mainland China has become totalitarian. Today more than ever, it frightens the Taiwanese.
Xi Jinping’s negative role
Behind this negative development in China is a man: Xi Jinping. He chose Mao Zedong as an example. And as if Mao had returned to power, but this time at the head of a China on the way to becoming a superpower, he is shaking up the world order that generations had created before him.
China is one of the greatest scientific powers in the world, but it no longer shares the results of its discoveries, under the pretext of national security.
China has one of the most powerful armies in the world, but it supports states that are marginalized by international society: Venezuela, Iran, Burma, North Korea, etc.
China is at the head of one of the most powerful diplomatic apparatuses on the planet, but its representatives engage in vicious rhetoric and hostage-taking.
It pleads for the reduction of greenhouse gases, but pushes projects of coal-fired power stations in developing countries.
She tries to convince the world that collective rights are respected in her territory, but she persecutes more than ever several of her minorities, including the Uyghurs.
Madness and incompetence
Since Xi Jinping took power, China’s justice system has shrunk, its debt has skyrocketed, its weak press freedom has collapsed, and its citizens are afraid to speak out.
It could have been otherwise. China could have strengthened its role as a global stabilizer. She could have become an example of freedom and modernity.
Unfortunately, Xi Jinping’s China is heading in the opposite direction. Now that the world is rid of the sad clown who ruled the United States, all eyes are turning more and more to the dictator who is the head of China, wondering if madness and incompetence have. not moved to China.