It’s no secret that Beijing and Moscow have maintained a steady level of cordiality in recent years. The rapprochement between the two powers is made clear in a recent video from late March 2023 of President Xi and Putin exchanging this message: 

Xi: Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years. And we are driving this change together. 

Putin: I agree. 

Xi: Please, take care, dear friend.

Putin: Have a safe journey!

It is hard to know exactly what this means right now and even harder not to get chills watching in video format. What does Xi Jinping mean when he says change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years? 100 years ago, America was just starting to rule the world as a global power. And now, we’re slowly beginning our transition to a paper tiger. We’re watching the end of the American empire in real time. This is the end for us. Many warned, few listened and even fewer cared. But they will soon. Very soon. 

The United States has fallen asleep while the rest of the world followed Napoleon’s advice: never interrupt your enemy when they’re making a mistake. We Americans ostracized Russia and ignored China. We missed the opportunity to let Russia join NATO after the fall of the Soviet Union, and we totally ignored China until Trump started lipping off about them five seconds ago. Nevertheless, we ignored in apathy as our country degraded itself by going around the world doing bad things. Very bad things. 

Meanwhile, China and Russia have been forming an alliance that is really unassailable from a western view. Anyone who’s seen the social media content exposed to Chinese children en masse and the content Americans put up with knows exactly what I’m talking about. They’ve fostered a culture that is much more mature and politically attuned. Like we used to be. And they’re ready to dethrone us in the next decade. But we had a good run. We led the world militarily and economically since the end of the first world war. 

Now, it’s China’s time. The country that was battered and beaten during the century of humiliation has now walked one step closer to reaching their two centenary goals by 2049. China has been through a lot, from losing both opium wars to small countries like Britain and France to the unequal treaties of Nanking and Shimonoseki and the devastating failures of the Qing dynasty. From the Chinese Civil War to the Great Leap Forward and of course the Cultural Revolution. And they’re wiser because of it, far more than Americans will ever be. And maybe they’ll be a good global power.

They already brokered peace between Iran and Saudi Arabia, something we’ve never managed to do, nor had the strategic position to do. But we did overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh and install the Shah of Iran in 1953. That’s the work of our own CIA. So already, China has a better record in that region than we do, at least in terms of peace, international security and human rights. America has a lot to atone for as far as our own behavior in the Middle East, much more than China. Many scholars have pointed out that with heavy U.S. involvement in the Middle East, we lost sight of the entire Asian Pacific. And we will pay the piper. 

And while Americans sulk in agony, constantly bemoaning the Chinese administration, they’ll conveniently forget their own culpability in the decline of their very country. They didn’t care when Bill Clinton was selling the Chinese our most classified military secrets and technology. They didn’t care that he was doing so in exchange for millions in laundered campaign funds from the Lippo Group. Instead, they chewed it up. They cheered as he took the stage at the DNC, dancing to that ridiculous Fleetwood Mac song “Don’t Stop.” 

So we brought this on ourselves by giving power to leaders who not only aided and abetted the rise of China and Russia, but stood as great beneficiaries of it. Right this second, we are draining the coffers of our own military to defend Ukraine. And China’s loving it because it reduces our capacity to fight in the first island chain and defend Taiwan. And now, Russia’s world leading oil supply, and China’s world leading military have surpassed the US and our NATO allies. Perhaps not in this very moment, but in the next decade. And while we sat on our laurels, China and Russia caught up. 

Now, they will lead the 21st century, alongside their Middle Eastern oil producing powerhouses. We Americans can do nothing but watch. The world is about to start looking very different from here on out. We haven’t realized this yet. But that’s okay. America is just not a very good colonial power. But there are other things to be good at anyway. Now let’s hope Xi and Putin take their new roles more seriously than we did.