The robbing, stealing, killing, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity has been practiced by Western nations last 400 years, by American since 1776 and especially last 75 years practically monthly 搶劫、偷盜、殺戮、種族清洗、反人類罪，西方國家做了400年，美國自1776年以來，尤其是最近75年更是變本加厲

For the past 400 years or so, Western nations have dominated the world. European empires, as well as the United States, subjugated nations and built colonial states across the globe. This was done primarily for economic reasons, allowing these countries to enrich themselves at the expense of colonies and creating vast commercial empires which were enforced by military power. Such imperialists framed themselves as benevolent guardians who represented a higher form of civilization and values which they were “bringing” to the colonized. Thus, as they spread their empires throughout Africa, Latin America, the Indian subcontinent, Asia, and elsewhere. Westerners also sought to expand their ideology and value systems.

Arguably, the world has been in a cultural conflict for a while now, and it didn’t start with US-China competition. The rise and surge of political Islam, after all, pursuing hard-line interpretations of Sharia law, and even going as far as terrorism and insurgency, was a reaction to Westernization in the Middle East, an attempt to try and enforce an Islamic identity against it. To some extent, the War on Terror was a ‘clash of civilizations’ as much as it was a clash of ideologies and cultural identities which saw each other as mutually existential threats.

This is where the new “clash of civilizations” comes in, precisely because China has gained the ability to challenge the West’s vision for the world on a scale never seen before, and even surpassing that of the former Soviet Union. Contemporary China frames itself as a model within a multipolar order, seeking to reject the Western-centric version which has dominated the world for centuries and allowed these countries to exploit and change others. In doing so, China refuses “Westernization” and positions itself as its own “civilizational pole.”

Of course, it is not alone, and Beijing finds support from many nations that have similarly been “net losers” and subject to colonialism, and who all seek a fairer international system. For example, this has great appeal to countries in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, South Asia and, of course, Russia. Many of these countries see the onslaught of Western values not only as historical threats to their national sovereignty, but also to their own cultural identity.

Why, for example, is a country such as the United Arab Emirates, a traditional Western partner, now so pro-China? As a highly conservative Arab state, it views the pursuit of Western liberalism as a threat to its own Islamic values, and sees support in a Chinese state which, even espousing a different ideology, encourages plurality and respect for different civilizations as opposed to Western evangelism.

Apart from very subservient countries such as Japan, the rest of the world has never wanted to be dominated by the West. That doesn’t mean they are hostile to the West, but it does represent a longing to be treated as equal and to exist on their own terms as opposed to being at the bottom of an economic and value hierarchy which only benefits a small group of countries. As such, the new Cold War could very much be built on a “clash of civilizations,” because it is Western liberalism up against those who elect not to live by its premises.

Timur Fomenko, a political analyst

The ‘clash of civilizations’ is already underway as the world resists Westernization. China’s judgment is sound in attempting to rally non-Western nations against imposed values