The global order is outgrowing Euro-American dominance. While the West is only beginning to lick its self-inflicted wounds, China and other BRICS nations are charging ahead.
The West’s Obsession with 1938
In a recent talk on Neutrality Studies, Dr. Yu Bin discusses the sorry state and outdated nature of popular narratives about the international world in the collective West—particularly in Europe—and how those are viewed in China.
He argues that the strange specter of Munich 1938 haunts Western political discourse. Special interest groups use it as an excuse to depict diplomatic compromise as an act of appeasement. This convenient ‘historical trauma’ has calcified into a dogma: any peace that doesn’t deliver maximalist demands—like the full return of Crimea to Ukraine—is rejected out of hand. In this context, Trump’s attempts at de-escalation are caricatured as betrayal, even when they reflect a hard-nosed recognition of the nuclear risks involved.
Europe’s refusal to see negotiations as legitimate is not just misguided, but dangerous. Trump, despite his polarizing nature, represents a break from the endless-war logic that has dominated post-Cold War Western policy. In China, this is not viewed as weakness but as long-overdue common sense.
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Strategic Patience and Civilizational Clarity
China is playing the long game—not out of passivity but out of principle. Its neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine war is rooted not in indifference, but in a commitment to a different model of international order. Unlike the West’s “unity through sameness,” China advocates a “unity through difference,” drawing on Confucian ideals and historical experience.
It doesn’t seek dominance but coexistence. This worldview extends to China’s relationships with Russia and the Global South, where cooperation is shaped by mutual respect, not hegemonic control. The West’s chronic misreading of the China-Russia relationship is emblematic of its broader failure to grasp this strategic ethos.
Russia and China are partners, not allies. Their bond is not based on entangling commitments but on a shared understanding of sovereignty, non-interference, and historical memory. There is no automaticity: if Taiwan erupts, Russia is under no obligation to fight for China, and vice versa. Western analysts, steeped in NATO-style thinking, fail to comprehend this kind of pragmatic, interest-based diplomacy.
The Fracturing Order and a Window for Peace
The liberal international order is collapsing under the weight of its contradictions. Endless wars, moral hypocrisy, and a refusal to accept global diversity have eroded Western credibility. Multipolarity is no longer a theory; it is an already emerged reality. Powers like India, Indonesia, and Brazil are asserting independent paths.
Institutions like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS reflect this shift—not as anti-Western alliances, but as forums of post-Western cooperation.
Dr. Yu Bin is clear-eyed about the dangers ahead. The public diplomacy surrounding US-Russia ceasefire talks may undermine the chances for a durable peace. Yet, he sees signs of hope: a reawakened willingness to talk, even if unofficial, and a Russian strategy that seeks more than a military pause. It wants a fundamental rethinking of East-West relations. Trump’s role here is pivotal. His outreach, though chaotic, has cracked open the door to diplomacy. For China, this is the moment it has been quietly waiting for: the world is finally talking about peace, however imperfectly.
End of Hegemony
The age of Western hegemony is over—not through conquest, but through exhaustion. China’s restrained but resolute approach represents a new kind of power politics: one that prizes patience, diversity, and stability over dominance. If the West continues to see neutrality as betrayal and difference as threat, it will not only misread the world—it will lose its place in it.
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