Russian President Vladimir Putin’s just concluded China trip gave a strong message to the world that Russia and China have joined forces to end western domination and American hegemony. Putin showed the west that as long as China is on its side, the west can hardly do any harm to it. Russia signed probably the largest gas deal in history. It took 10 years to work out this 400 billion dollars deal. The European countries, who have been threatening to punish Russia for its role in Ukraine, are going to be punished themselves. The money that they had invested in gas pipelines is going down the drain. They will have to pay much more for the gas now. This is going to make their economic crises much deeper.
The western capitalism has been crisis ridden since its inception. It moves from one crisis to another. It has faced contradictions from the beginning. When a contradiction becomes acute, then there is a crisis. When the contradiction is resolved, capitalism moves to a higher stage. Generally, it meant that capitalism was able to expand its markets further. However, with globalization, the western capitalism reached its highest potential. Now, there is no room to expand the markets. Russia and China are now limiting their area of domination. Therefore, instead of expanding, they now have to retract. The western capitalism has reached a stage where it will demise and be replaced by another system before the middle of the century.
Russia is obstructing the West’s expansion in Europe while China is limiting them in Asia. The west is being squeezed both in the East and the West. The West masterminded the collapse of the Soviet Union so that it can take all the area of the Soviet Empire. However, Russia and China limited its expansion in Central Asia by making the Shanghai Cooperation. The west then tried to absorb the European part of the Soviet Empire. However, Russia challenged them in Georgia and again in Ukraine. Russia did not let them have a free ride in Eastern Europe.
China has started asserting itself in Asia. The western countries completely disregarded all norms and principles and drew arbitrary borders during the colonial era. Now, most of these former colonies are facing border problems which are a legacy of colonialism. China is challenging the western-set borders in both East China and South China seas.
China has to confront the old American clients such as Japan and Philippines. It has to confront the new American clients such as Vietnam. However, China shows no sign of retracting its claims. In a way, Russia and China have supported each other’s claims. The west will be forced in the direction of retreat from both Europe and Asia because it cannot afford a direct confrontation with either Russia or China. Their client states will become painfully aware that they were with the losing side.
The situation in Syria showed that Russia and China have joined forces to challenge the west in areas which can be considered outside their geographical areas. Syria is very strategically located in the Middle East. Russia and China have united to confront the west there. So far, it appears that the side supported by them is winning and the western lackeys are taking a miserable beating there. In its desperation, the west is looking for an excuse for a direct intervention there because their lackeys show no sign of reversing their sinking fate.
France moved a resolution in the Security Council. The clear intention of this resolution was to pave the way for the western intervention by referring the Syrian question to the international criminal court. However, Russia and China both vetoed this resolution. It is no coincidence that this happened while Putin was concluding his China trip. This sends a message of solidarity of Russia and China in opposing the western-domination and American hegemony. Decline of western capitalism, and western domination and American hegemony are inevitable. The world is going to watch the rise of the East as well as the demise of western capitalism before the middle of the century.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
