On Friday evening, the Chinese Central Bank announced that the country’s economy had officially become the second largest in the world after the United States, confirming forecasts previously issued by many global economic institutions in recent months that it had surpassed the size of its Japanese counterpart. China had managed to withstand the global financial crisis through a massive $586 billion stimulus plan in 2009, and its growth rate reached 11.1% in the first half of 2010.
News like this, from our vulnerable corner of the world, always manages to slip into the hearts of the region’s people—those who are eager for any shift in the unjust global order and who await the fulfillment of prophecies predicting the fall of Uncle Sam, the lone-pole bully of the globe.
It is true that as Arabs, we criticize China’s penetration of our markets and the destruction its products have inflicted on local industries. But at the same time, our eyes gleam with a naïve anticipation of the fall of the “American evil empire” the moment that sleeping dragon in the hills of the East awakens, assured by its seemingly pure history in our region, free from colonial ambition and filled with supportive stances toward our causes. Yet is this not the political game China plays, lying in wait for the right moment to awaken its dragon to lead the world?
One cannot help but be astonished at the simplistic joy sparked by China’s leaps in the global power balance! What guarantees that this sleeping dragon would be any more merciful to us than the raging bull that currently toys with the fates of our peoples? We must examine China’s modern history more deeply—since the Mao Zedong revolution and the establishment of that communist state which brutalized its own children more severely than Soviet tyrants treated their enemies.
Why do we always forget that China, in its dictatorship and massacres of minorities, set an example that surpassed what many Western leaders—America included—have done? Wasn’t the repression last year by this supposedly “sleeping” dragon’s forces against the Muslim Uyghurs in western China a clear testament to their brutality and darkness? And are not their nuclear tests on Muslim Chinese lands a complete abandonment of the most basic notions of mercy, even toward animals—let alone humans?
Anyone following the daily news should not be so blinded by optimism about China’s rise, as if it were the savior of the oppressed from their tormentor. It is telling that on the very same day this miraculous economic advancement was announced, four other key news items emerged—any one of which could make us reconsider whether we’re dealing with a future enemy, not a future ally.
The first reflects the dictatorship of state-sanctioned monolithic thought, as Google confirmed in a message on its website that its internet and mobile search services in China had been disrupted. The second reveals the continued global deception, as China claimed it does not seek dominance and has no intention of entering an arms race—claims widely debunked by numerous other reports. The third news item, also on the same day, stated that China had carried out large-scale naval and air maneuvers this week off its southeastern coast in the South China Sea, coinciding with joint naval exercises between the United States and South Korea. The fourth was the announcement that China had decided to launch its first high-frequency satellite for 3D mapping in the second half of 2011, after three years of research and trials.
Isn’t all this a clear indication of the nature of the new world leader—one perhaps even more dangerous than the last? The West may have blood on its hands from its many victims, but despite its crimes, there remains the possibility of dialogue based on mutual understandings—at the very least, a shared belief in the same God of the Abrahamic religions, which agree on most fundamentals despite the struggle of their followers over wealth and power. As for the sons of the dragon, they believe in nothing and understand only the language of oppression and its justification, as witnessed by Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu peoples there. The blood of those slaughtered in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, for daring to speak out, reflects the true character of the new world leader.
This article is originally published by AlBorsa in Arabic and later AI-translated by South Push.