10-十月-2022
By advancement and confidence, we gain control and influence
Because I care about you and about the truth, I say:
By advancement and confidence, we gain control and influence
Talal Abu Ghazaleh
The various forms of tension between the American and the Chinese giants are increasing. So, what is the expected outcome of what is going on between them?
I have been repeatedly saying that the two giants have always been competing for controlling the world, and that their policies have been tailored accordingly. America spent billions to extend its military control over the oil fields to pave the way for extending its commercial control. China, on the other hand, followed a different path in its endeavor to gain control, namely the initiative of the "Belt and Road” project, to restore what was previously known as the "Silk Road".
America did not stand still. US President Joe Biden, in cooperation with the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, launched an initiative to counter the Chinese "Belt and Road" project. The initiative included two elements that they believed would attract attention to their project; punishing Beijing for what they described as human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and the democratic countries helping the poor people of the world.
But will China allow anyone to interfere in what is happening in Xinjiang?
No. China also imposed sanctions on nine Britons and a few entities, accusing them of spreading lies and fabrications about Xinjiang.
The "American and Chinese" methods are similar, but they differ in their ways. Perhaps the classification of the world as "rich and poor" would eliminate democracy, keep the gap between countries, and reveal that the purpose of the "aid" is only to have a "foothold". The loans or the projects the rich countries offer to the poor countries to build roads or railways or to construct dams, ports, airports, etc. is only to pretend that it is a "safe, open world", as the Chinese President Xi Jinping has described it. But it is not. Just as poor countries will benefit from this, the rich countries will also benefit by increasing productivity, keep their factory lines running, employing their citizens, and bringing business to their companies.
Finally, the core of the conflict between the two giants is the upcoming “digital control”, represented by the "artificial intelligence" innovations, not the competition to demarcate a track for a new silk road. Economic superiority may not be sufficient to guarantee technological superiority. With China, focussing on its own interests, by inventing its own Internet and its independence from the world by having its own digital engines, it would be true to say that the new age is a globalization era except that it excludes China.
We hope that the new laws of the world will satisfy the ambitions of the two giants and that we will overcome the crisis between the two competing powers, particularly at a time that is different from the cold war era between the Soviet Union and America . We are in the era of the "digital age", where differences between countries and societies disappear through the exchange of the same knowledge, data, and information among all the people all over the world. This would enable the weak to become strong. But that will only happen when there is a will, when there is confidence, and desire to rise to the ranks of universality.
It is hard to convince one of the two parties to concede to the other. The ultimate winner will be the one who will develop its performance, trust its resources and capabilities, organize its inputs, and know how to use its outputs.
The Americans should translate the slogan they have written on their dollar bill, "In God we trust" into the way they deal with the Chinese problem and the Chinese new version of the Silk Road.