China’s Insight Into The “Kabul Moment” Is Worth Considering

The takeaway from China’s insight into the “Kabul moment” is that the US is seeking to impose the same failed hegemonic model onto the Asia-Pacific as it earlier attempted to impose in Eurasia. Rhetoric about “democracy”, “human rights”, and the “rules-based order” is nothing but a smokescreen for disguising its unipolar agenda that’s being pushed at everyone else’s expense and aims to destabilize their region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin was asked on Monday about what CCTV described as the “Kabul moment”, which refers to the Taliban retaking control of the Afghan capital on 15 August 2021 without firing shot. This symbolically occurred prior to the full withdrawal of those Western forces that had been occupying this geostrategically positioned state for the past two decades. The images that accompanied that moment have since come to infamously represent the failure of that US-led war.

The diplomat responded by sharing some worthwhile insight. In his words, “The ‘Kabul moment’ marks the failure of the ‘democratic transformation’ imposed by the US”, which he said can never be imposed by foreign forces, let alone in advance of ideologically driven aims that contradict the targeted society’s culture and history. Mr. Wang then added that the pretext of the US invading other countries to spread “democracy” and protect “human rights” has conclusively been discredited.

Nevertheless, he predicted that more such “Kabul moments” might be inevitable so long as the US refuses to learn its lessons from Afghanistan. This diplomat’s professional assessment is that “the US has never ceased to engage in political interference and manipulation worldwide in the name of democracy and human rights. It has even tried to build ‘small circles’ in economic and technological spheres.” The last part is presumably in reference to the anti-Chinese coalition that the US is attempting to assemble.

In particular, last September’s AUKUS alliance between Australia, the UK, and the US is regarded by most experts as one of the most regionally destabilizing developments in decades. It’s especially concerning since it involves the sharing of nuclear technology in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, thereby leading to fears that this troika’s Anglo-American members might one day help their Australian partner secretly develop nuclear weapons in the worst-case scenario.

The economic aspect of this larger trend concerns various programs that the US has unveiled in recent years, all of which share the commonality of being closed blocs intended to counteract what Washington wrongly regards as Beijing’s “destabilizing influence”. The reality is that the dozens of countries that cooperate with China through the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) have universally recognized governments that voluntarily decided to enter into mutually beneficial cooperation with it.

By contrast, these emerging US-led structures either rely on countries that are already antagonistic to China like Australia has recently been manipulated by America into becoming or coerce prospective members into joining under the implied threat of information warfare consequences if they refuse. Some comparatively smaller- and medium-sized lack the confidence to reject this bullying, especially if the US has succeeded in influencing them through neo-colonial means.

Against this context, it’s clear that more such “Kabul moments” might occur in the coming future, albeit in the Asia-Pacific instead of Eurasia considering the fact that the first-mentioned is being transformed by the US into a theater of competition with China against the regional countries’ will. Just like in Afghanistan, the US is seeking to advance its unipolar hegemonic interests under the false pretext of spreading “democracy” and supporting “human rights” through rhetoric about the “rules-based order”.

That phrase is nothing more than the latest propaganda point intended to imply that all regional states must unilaterally concede on their objective national interests by complying with the US’ demands since this is supposedly a better alternative that subjecting themselves to China’s alleged “hegemony”. The truth, however, is that China has consistently fought against hegemony wherever it may be and regardless of whoever’s attempting to impose it since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

As the world’s largest developing country, China has a responsibility to its peers across the Global South to help them follow in its footsteps by facilitating their full liberation from the US-led West’s neo-colonial yoke. BRI is the means to this end since it embodies mutually beneficial and sustainable economic cooperation without any strings attached, unlike those that always come with American “aid”, which is just a euphemism for buying off corrupt elites and/or clandestinely expanding its influence.

The takeaway from China’s insight into the “Kabul moment” is that the US is seeking to impose the same failed hegemonic model onto the Asia-Pacific as it earlier attempted to impose in Eurasia. Rhetoric about “democracy”, “human rights”, and the “rules-based order” is nothing but a smokescreen for disguising its unipolar agenda that’s being pushed at everyone else’s expense and aims to destabilize their region. Just like in Afghanistan, however, the US is also doomed to fail in the Asia-Pacific.