The US Is Hellbent On “Containing” China & Russia

American officials frame their country’s foreign policy in flowery language alleging that it’s formulated in pursuit of defending “democracy”, “human rights”, and the so-called “rules-based order”, but it’s really driven by the desperate desire to delay its declining unipolar hegemony over International Relations. Instead of accepting the ongoing global systemic transition’s inevitable evolution towards multipolarity and pragmatically finding its place within this emerging order, the US delusionally thinks it can reverse it.

China and Russia are two of the most influential countries that are reforming International Relations with a view towards making everything more democratic, equal, just, and predictable, which explains why the US is hellbent on “containing” them. To that end, it’s assembling a NATO-like military bloc in the Asia-Pacific against the first and waging a proxy war against the second in Ukraine. Both aforementioned developments are unprecedentedly dangerous because they could spiral into a World War. 

Neither pillar of the US’ grand strategy has anything to do with “democracy”, “human rights”, or “rules” like its representatives claim since they actually embody the exact opposite. Imposing unilateral sanctions against Russia outside the authority of the UN Security Council and implying the threat of such against China in the scenario that it arms Moscow, which Beijing has denied having any intention to do, violates international law. The US is therefore blatantly breaking the same “rules” it claims to defend.

As for the faux “human rights” dimension of its grand strategy, one needs only to recall the impunity with which the US violated these selfsame rights in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and countless other countries to see through this rhetorical smokescreen. The only time that its representatives reference “human rights” is whenever they want to manipulate their targeted audience’s perceptions against another country as part of their information warfare against it.

There’s no doubt that the US also doesn’t care about “democracy” either since its own governing system is influenced by anti-democratic forces. For instance, big businesses (especially the military-industrial complex) “legally” bribe lawmakers through what’s known as “lobbying” while the Mainstream Media colludes with members of the America’s permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies to produce propaganda for the purpose of misleading voters ahead of elections.

These anti-democratic forces are responsible for the US’ dangerous “containment” policies against China and Russia since they fear that those two’s successful multipolar reforms of International Relations will threaten their own power in the long run. Those big businesses that presently manipulate American democracy might no longer be as influential as they currently are upon the rise of competitors across the world while its warmongering bureaucrats won’t be listened to in times of peace.

They therefore have self-interested reasons to preemptively thwart economic challengers like China and sabotage peace proposals such as Russia’s security guarantees that were shared in late December 2021 in order to retain their power over that declining unipolar hegemon. These motivations place its attempted “containment” of those two into their appropriate context since that dangerous policy doesn’t make sense in any other way.

China recently started raising maximum global awareness of these grand strategic dynamics with the intent of inspiring peace-loving people across the world to do their utmost to avert the World War that these rogue US forces are moving major countries towards whether inadvertently or by design. President Xi Jinping said earlier this month during the National People’s Congress that the US is attempting to “contain” China, which immediately prompted the whole world to pay attention. 

According to the Wall Street Journal citing a Chinese-language readout of his comments that were published by Xinhua, his exact words were that “Western countries—led by the U.S.—have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression against us, bringing unprecedentedly severe challenges to our country’s development.” Newly appointed Foreign Minister Qin Gang then built upon President Xi’s assessment the next day during his speech at that same event.

CNN quoted him as saying the following: “If the United States does not hit the brakes, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation…The US claims it seeks to compete with China but does not seek conflict. But in reality, the so-called ‘competition’ by the US is all-round containment and suppression, a zero-sum game of life and death.”

Foreign Minister Qin also added that “The real purpose of the Indo-Pacific strategy is to contain China. No Cold War should be repeated in Asia, and no Ukraine-style crisis should be repeated in Asia.” Regarding the Ukrainian Crisis, Chinese Ambassador to the EU Fu Cong told Global Times in an interview at the beginning of the month that the US is manipulating everything behind the scenes in pursuit of its self-interested grand strategic goals against China, Russia, and even its own European allies.

He declared that “In my opinion, the biggest ‘black hand’ behind the scenes is the US, and it is also the biggest beneficiary. As long as the Ukraine conflict continues, it will help the US with its policies of weakening Russia, controlling Europe and containing China. The American arms industry would make a fortune.” With President Xi’s, Foreign Minister Qin’s, and Ambassador Fu’s words in mind, it’s clear that the US is aggressively attempting to “contain” China and Russia in order to delay its declining hegemony.

A Third World War isn’t inevitable, however, since that worst-case scenario can still be averted. All that the US has to do is realize that it’s impossible to reverse the global systemic transition to multipolarity. No amount of “containment”, proxy wars, or sanctions can stop the course of history regardless of whatever rogue US influencers might think. The American people, like all others, want peace and development. It’s about time that their policymakers behave democratically by listening to them.

Andrew Korybko

Source: The US Is Hellbent On “Containing” China & Russia