🇨🇳🇺🇸 WaPo mocks China for not being imperialist and failing to use force to defend its interests, arguing that they're losing out to the U.S. in Venezuela, Panama, Iran etc.

In essence the article can be summarised as: "You Chinese losers thought you could gain influence by actually building things? The only thing that actually works is bombing people."

I'm not even exaggerating. The author literally writes that:

"China can spend all the money on infrastructure it wants... But in a crunch, it is only military force that counts."

He argues that China's approach was "a colossal waste of money" because "control of infrastructure can be changed" with a US-led "change of regime" and "ownership of any asset can be overturned."

His article's conclusion? "You can’t buy an empire, nor can you purchase global influence. It is only hard power that counts for anything."

As cynical and brutish as the article is, it's also refreshingly honest. It is factual that China's strategy was to win over the Global South by investing in their infrastructure and development, while the U.S. maintains its influence through regime change, various forms of coercion, and the threat (or use) of force.

The conclusion that it is China that should feel embarrassed by this as opposed to the U.S. is, however, completely insane.

Every sane person on earth should hope that it is China's approach that ultimately prevails, for the sake of our collective future as humanity. China is ultimately trying to prove that one can prevail geopolitically without violence, by building instead of destroying: don't be like this idiot WaPo writer and root for the answer to be "no".

🔗 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/02/23/china-belt-and-road-power/

📎 Arnaud Bertrand