As for swords and ploughshares, it is the weapons that are proliferating, not the ploughs. The Russian defence budget has been increasing at 20 per cent a year, while China’s is running at 8 per cent. Nor is there any talk of a peace dividend, as the US pushes its Nato allies to spend more, as it does itself, some of it on sending back troops it withdrew from Europe. As for the triumphs of democracy around the world, the Middle East is a reality check: when the strongmen went in Iraq, Egypt or Libya, or were challenged in Syria, look what happened.
And strongmen are back in fashion. Watching Putin in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, Sisi in Egypt or Xi Jinping in China toughening their grip on the minds of their peoples is depressing enough. Worse, democracy appears to be stumbling in parts of Europe and the US itself. And worst of all is the spectacle of developing countries concluding that authoritarianism is the only road to stability, and that tough guys are the future.
No one can say we haven’t been warned. The following appeared in the semi-official China Daily seven months ago:
“In the years immediately after the Cold War, Western scholars were quite confident that Western-style ‘democracy’ would eventually triumph over all other political systems, with Francis Fukuyama’s book, The End of History and The Last Man, being a case in point.
“Yet the past decade has revealed many deficiencies in what the Western scholars claimed to be a faultless political system. Western-style democracy, in fact, has failed to solve the social, economic and political problems of even the Western countries.
“In contrast, socialism with Chinese characteristics is propelling China toward realising the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
“China’s democratic system under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is perfectly suited to the country’s present conditions and cultural traditions. Unlike Western political parties that represent the interests of only part of the people, the CPC represents the working class along with the rest of the Chinese people.
“China is the only ancient civilisation that has continued to evolve without a break for more than 5,000 years. And the CPC has inherited, and has been promoting, the cultural traditions of that civilisation with the aim of serving the nation and its people. And contrary to some Western scholars’ prophecy during the Cold War, China is rising steadily while the West remains mired in all kinds of troubles.”
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