The COVID-19 outbreak has helped the world realize how much the “American Dream” has proven to be a nightmare. The people who have been exposed to US aggression for 75 years have experienced the pain of being deceived by this dream. Now the American people themselves are waking up from this nightmare.
Today, even its ideologists admit that Neoliberalism is going bankrupt! The teeth of US imperialism have rotted. How did this radical change happen? Did it happen spontaneously as a result of the periodic crises of capitalism? Now it seems that Western ideologues are trying to convince us that capitalism will find its solution to the crisis, despite that capitalism is what caused it in the first place.
SUCCESS OF THE OPPRESSED WORLD
However, the most important fact we need to realize today is the struggle of the oppressed world, which is overthrowing the global reign of the US. At the same time, this is the success of people like a villager from Mousul, who managed to destroy US aircraft by attaching the anti-aircraft weapons to donkeys during the invasion of Iraq. It is the result of the Chinese revolution that made China the world’s largest economy, despite having been the poorest country of the world in 1949, and the resistance of Asia, South America, and Africa. It is a result of the independence of countries, the liberation of nations, and the revolution of peoples. The final straw is the resistance of West Asia, alongside the failure of the US spending 4 trillion dollars in the Second Gulf invasion caused the bankruptcy of Wall Street. The plan to establish the “Second Israel” in Syria, which the US has been trying to implement since 1985, has failed. The fact that American imperialism identified Turkey as the main target is a result of this.
This fact has once again shown the world that people make history!
CHINA CHANGED THE BALANCE
The oppressed world is entering the new period under better conditions. First of all, developing countries have China to rely on. On June 17, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced today’s preliminary important geo-political development on the Euronews channel: “The rise of China is fundamentally changing the global balance of power.” (2) NATO Secretary General recommends the two wings of the Atlantic alliance against China to cooperate more closely. However, the Trump administration decided to leave the eastern wing of the Atlantic alliance on its own. The US withdraws his troops from Germany. European Union countries, especially Germany, are developing their relations with China despite the US’s bans.
The US has lost its leadership role, it now tries to keep its allies in the order by punishing them. The US.= Secretary of State was even forced to visit to warn it to cut off cooperation with China. The US caused a political crisis in Australia in order to prevent Victoria’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative.
THE DELUSION OF “THE POLICY OF WOLF WARRIORS”
The US is trying to demonize its enemies to cover its own weakness. A perception was created in the Western media about “China’s policy of wolf warriors”, with reference to the fact that Hollywood-esque Chinese-made “Wolf Warriors 3” found a wide audience worldwide. They claimed that President Xi Jinping would abandon China’s traditional defense-based foreign policy and imitate the United States. They spread the fear that China will interfere with the internal affairs of countries with the Chinese “Rambos”.
In fact, what Xi Jinping is doing is establishing a more equitable international order by taking advantage the opportunities of the oppressed world. The most important means of this foreign policy is the Belt and Road Initiative.
NOT A PROJECT, BUT AN INITIATIVE
The Western press and imperialist politicians insistently use the name of “China’s Belt and Road Project”. China underlines that this is not a completed project, but an initiative to be built with the participating countries. Xi Jinping proposes to build the “development by sharing” model in which both parties will gain, by evaluating the comparative advantages of the participating countries. “Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence” are carefully observed in more than a hundred cooperation agreements signed within the scope of the BRI.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE THREE WORLDS THEORY
In fact, BRI is an adaptation of ”Three Worlds Theory” of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to today’s conditions. Mao grouped the “First World” as countries that pursued hegemony, the “Second World” as developed capitalist countries that had lost their claim to establish world hegemony such as Europe and Japan, and the “Third World” as oppressed and developing countries. Mao’s strategy was that the united Third World countries would put an end to hegemony by siding with the “Second World”. In line with the same strategy, the BRI sees Eurasia as a potentially prosperous economic region and extending this partnership with Africa and South America.
Cooperation within the scope of the BRI is mostly advancing among Asian countries, followed by African ones. EU countries, especially Italy, are also looking to join the BRI.
BE THE FOREMAN DURING THE LONG MARCH
Mao Zedong describes politics as “increasing friends, reducing enemies”. Even though revolutionaries such as Ataturk, Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Castro and Xi Jinping did not use the same terms, their deeds show that they understand politics as such. What guides the Belt and Road Initiative is this understanding. A culturally embracing and peaceful development model based on nation-states, aiming mutual benefit, and promoting common points rather than separations.
The BRI is a “Long March” that will bring prosperity, peace, development and brotherhood of nations to developing countries, including China!
Turkey joined the BRI with the “Middle Corridor” Initiative, which will unite Turkish Republics and Iran with Europe. Trains from China, from now on, will arrive in Barcelona via Turkey by passing through the Middle Corridor.
Our task is to show the agility and resolution that will gain the most benefit from the BRI.
At the beginning of the 20th century, we became the precursor of the Asian Age, coming with the Kemalist Revolution. We have faltered for 70 years with the mistake of trying to be “Little America”, now, the Asian Age has begun! The Belt and Road Initiative constitutes the opportunity to be one of the decisive countries in world politics for Turkey, who will have an important role as a foreman in the “Long March of the Oppressed”.
1. Işıkgün Akfırat, Footsteps of the New World in Atlantic Media, Teori magazine, No 365, June 2020
2. https://www.euronews.com/2020/06/16/china-s-rise-makes-transatlantic-bond-even-more-important-warns-nato-chief