China Takes Command as the Western World Crumbles in Ukraine

As the conflict in Ukraine lays bare the decay of the Western-led order, China stands ready to shape an alternative that abandons the injustices of imperial capitalism.

By Karim Bettache

The war in Ukraine is more than a regional conflict between two nations. It is a symptom of a diseased global order that has reached the terminal stage of collapse. The outbreak of warfare in Ukraine signals the death throes of a decaying system built around power monopolies, corporate pillage and imperial exploitation. But amidst this breakdown, there also emerges the possibility for creating something new.

The Western powers themselves show signs of internal decay and fracture. In the United States, infrastructure crumbles while political schisms widen. Culture wars rage over issues of race, gender and sexuality. Mass shootings have become commonplace. Neo-fascist movements are on the rise, fueled by white supremacist ideology.

Europe too is beset by turmoil. The far-right gains traction across the continent, exploiting austerity measures, refugee crises and economic uncertainty. European nations abandon their own citizens by following America's dictate to cut energy ties with Russia, sending energy prices sky high. Refugees fleeing war and oppression continue to drown in the Mediterranean as Europe fails to mount an adequate humanitarian response.

For centuries, the old colonialist powers in the West have shaped global affairs through military occupation, puppet governments and economic bullying of developing nations. The United States has taken up the imperial mantle in the post-World War Two era, waging war and orchestrating coups around the world to maintain dominance. But America's grip is slipping. The disastrous occupation of Afghanistan, China's economic rise and the spread of new technologies have undercut US hegemony.

China now stands as the power most capable of challenging the old colonialist and capitalist order. While China faces huge issues of its own around censorship and surveillance, as well as a neoliberal internal capitalist class dying to overtake power, its consistent support for the Global South and reluctance to invade other nations sets it apart from the former colonial masters in the West. China funds massive infrastructure projects in the developing world, trades with nations the US seeks to isolate and rejects the "regime change" interventions favored by Western powers.

Most significantly, China has shown that an economic model need not be built around the unfettered greed and hoarding of wealth by a small capitalist class. China tightly controls and regulates its private sector billionaires and entrepreneurs, demanding they serve the aims of the state. And despite being an industrial power, China has also prioritized green energy sources, investing heavily in solar, wind and hydroelectric plants.

As global disorder rises and new alliances form, there is an opportunity to reconstruct the international system on principles of equity, solidarity and sustainability. But any reshaping of the new world order will not come from above. Real change depends on mass movements for justice that birth alternatives from below.

The threat of another 4 years of Trump stands ready to introduce a second round of expressing US decay blatantly to the world, unless in some magical event the wonderful Dr. Cornel West will win the presidential elections for the Green Party. The Ukraine crisis and global tumult may open a window to build something better. But we must act quickly, before the old decay closes that window once more.

After 4 years of pathetic rule by Joe Biden, with no fundamental change to America's imperial policies, and the re-emergence of Donald Trump or a Trumpian candidate, it has become painfully clear that the political system in the United States is incapable of facilitating the structural changes needed to reform a crumbling empire. The malaise runs deep, as shown by America's feeble response to the greatest threats of our time, from climate change to nuclear conflagration to global pandemics. Unless a true movement arises from the grassroots, consisting of workers, students, people of color and all those cast aside by the current order, the US empire will continue its bloody trajectory of decline, dragging the rest of the world down with it.