China, Iran and the rise of a ‘rogue superpower’
President Trump’s chaotic and ‘incoherent foreign policy’ is pushing the United States into a dark place
China appears to be working in the background to thrash out a peace deal to end the Iran war. Reports have surfaced that it is in close contact with Pakistan after mapping out a five-point plan. Included in the proposals is an “immediate cessation of hostilities.”
Talks between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar also called for “ensuring the security” of the Strait of Hormuz. The shipping chokepoint has been blocked by Iran since the conflict broke out with the United States.
“China will continue to maintain close communication with Pakistan and all relevant parties to play a constructive role in promoting a ceasefire and ending the hostilities,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a media briefing.
“Military means cannot offer a fundamental solution, and the escalation of conflicts does not serve the interest of any party,” she added, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.
The discussions come at a time when the narrative from Chinese academics and officials is that “the war will only accelerate America’s decline,” The Economist This Week update stated.
“They see American aggression as a validation of President Xi Jinping’s focus on security. And they expect peace, when it comes, to create opportunities for China to exploit. Only in the background is there anxiety about the dangers of a disordered world,” it reported.
There is a future in which America embraces upheaval.
The Economist
Decline or disarray?
- Yet Xi’s claim that the “East is rising and the West is declining” might be premature in citing his vision of a new world order.
- Instead, he might be entering an “era of the rogue American superpower” under US President Donald Trump’s chaotic and “incoherent foreign policy.”
Delve deeper: “Nations that once bandwagoned with the United States will now remain aloof or align against it – not because they want to, but because the United States leaves them no choice,” Robert Kagan, of the Brookings Institution, wrote in The Atlantic magazine.
Big picture: It is a “scenario” echoed by The Economist, with a distinctive twist. “Chinese thinkers are too reluctant to contemplate a scenario in which America acts as a rogue power, ripping up the world order it created,” the London-based magazine stressed.
Between the lines: “[But] faced with technological and political change, America has repeatedly shown a remarkable ability to reinvent itself,” it said.
Bottom line: “China is cautious, aging and hidebound by ideology. There is a future in which America embraces upheaval and China shuts itself off. That future may yet belong to America,” The Economist added.
China Factor comment: Still, Trump appears hellbent on trashing NATO after European allies refused to back his attack on Iran. The defense group was set up in 1949 following the outbreak of the Cold War. Nearly 80 years later, he has described it as a “paper tiger.”