Why China is beating the West

China will end up beating the west. That is my prediction, and I am not even going to label it as a bold prediction since there is unfortunately little to convince me that this is not inevitable.

Why will China win? Because the west has stopped believing in the values that made it great in the first place.

Objective reason, science and liberalism were the foundations upon which great western states built their societies. The United States, once a bastion of liberty, liberalism and reason, has descended into a country at war with itself.

The sad part about this is that the decline of the west has been deliberate, part of a collective push from our tertiary institutions to dismantle the very assets that made the west great in the first place. Left wing postmodernism problematises logic, reason, science and liberalism as white, masculine constructs that need to be deconstructed in order to cede ground to a flawed reality that celebrates intersectional identities.

Britain and America, two great civilisations, now have vacuous debates about privilege, about history, about patriarchy, about tearing down statues and censoring historical programs and cancelling individuals and narratives upon which the society was built.

Winston Churchill, the great wartime leader who embodied the very essence of liberal democratic values in his great defence of Britain against fascism, is now derided as a racist imperialist whose statue at Westminster is an offence to the sensibilities of intersectional identitarians.

Compare this to China, a country which venerates its leaders of the past. Granted, China is an incredibly flawed society and this should not be read as a defence of its governance structure, but it draws strength from its past while the west appears determined to abandon its own.

We rightly see problems with China’s centralised governance and its human rights abuses, but the country itself has a firm sense of purpose that western states have lost.

If the west wishes to remain dominant in the 21^st century, it must draw strength from the very sources that made it great in the first place. Otherwise, China, with no sense of apology or modesty, will happily fill the vacuum and take the mantle as the world’s sole superpower.

Witness its Belt & Road Initiative. Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy project that harnesses China’s historic links to forge new connections with countries across Asia, Africa and the pacific. Meanwhile, countries in the west are debating how we can ‘decolonise’ our imperial past.

China celebrates its history and its culture. Under Xi Jinping, China promotes a proud nationalism and patriotism where the central Han Chinese culture is venerated across society’s institutions. The flipside of course is that this has left minority populations in Xinjiang, Tibet and Northern Mongolia vulnerable to coercive state policies, one of the many reasons why it is more important than ever for western nations to stand up for liberal democratic values rather than erode them, lest centralised authoritarianism becomes further legitimised.

Yet the point is that China is drawing strength from a proud reading of its history, culture and people. It views national celebrations such as Chinese New Year as a source of pride and an opportunity to forge unity. Yet in the United States and Australia respectively, events such as Thanksgiving and Australia Day have become days of division and discord, where revisionist readings of history view national holidays as a source of shame rather than pride.

On Australia Day this year, a man was arrested for wearing the Australian flag while standing in Melbourne’s streets. When societies no longer see fit to defend their history but rather, see fit to erase it and dismantle it, they set themselves on a path to inevitable ruin.

The strength of the west has been its commitment to science, reason and liberalism. Yet liberal values are now viewed skeptically by the elite. Critical Theory taught in our humanities and social science departments now teach young people to utilise postmodern frameworks to dismantle and problematise society’s key institutions.

This is why we are now having debates about defunding police, about changing national holidays or about whether or not something was a micro-aggression. Radical left theory posits that the west’s societal structures are inherently racist, sexist and homophobic and thus need to be dismantled. It contends that liberal values are not sufficient mechanisms upon which to achieve equality and that reason and science are merely manifestations of white male patriarchy that are problematic. We are indoctrinating an entire generation to revolutionise our society from the inside.

Meanwhile, Chinese students and expats are taught to firmly defend the Chinese government, to proudly embrace their culture and to promote Chinese values and stories abroad. China views itself as reclaiming its rightful place as a central actor on the global stage, rejoicing in its natural ascension after a century of humiliation. It resolutely defends its core values.

Yet liberal democracies in the west do not. One should ask the question that if we are not even capable of defending our history, culture and values between ourselves, then how can we possibly remain strong against a civilization inexorably marching forward with a firm sense of purpose and resolve?