Xi-Putin alliance: power beyond measure the greatest danger
James J.Y. Hsu 許正餘

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russia President Vladimir Putin. Yet, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) traveled to Moscow to shake his hand. Xi is not ashamed to befriend a war criminal. The ambition for power beyond measure for him is far more important than justice and human rights. Power without checks and balances spells the greatest danger for humankind.

This would be the equivalent of an alliance between Voldemort and Grindelwald in Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s magical world.

In the name of a peace accord for Ukraine and Russia, the visit’s purpose was a power play to counter the world’s united democratic block, and topple the leading role of the US.

Xi said to Putin at a farewell ceremony: “Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years. And we are driving this change together.”

The new world order Xi is dreaming of does not respect universal values — human rights, personal wealth, rule of law — and does not allow individual creativity and accomplishment. It would be governed under the pretense of national superiority, police-state security and absolute authority.

Change will come and must come, but not in the direction of imperialism, communism or authoritarianism. The new world order will come when autocracy is defeated by democracy, just like communism was defeated by capitalism in the 20th century.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida traveled to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Kishida’s visit clearly signaled the resolve to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s aggression by the world’s democratic and free countries.

As the saying goes, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

However, corruption is the lesser of the sins. Politics without principle can easily lead to unlimited warfare, crimes against humanity, nuclear catastrophe and an apocalypse. The threat to use nuclear weapons has been and still is Putin’s trump card. It is irresponsible and fully displays the cruelty of a mad dictator.

China’s economic support to Russia would prolong the war in Ukraine. Moreover, if China supplied advanced weapons, Russia could rise from the ashes to withstand the ending of the war in the foreseeable future.

Politics without principle is one of the seven social sins, as Mahatma Gandhi alluded to. Furthermore, politics with the wrong ideology and unconstrained power is worse and deadly.

Even though the arc of the moral universe is bending toward justice, there are people who are trying to bend it backward.

US Senator Marco Rubio said in a recent speech: “Now you have a rich Chinese Communist Party that has tightened its grip on the country... Three decades later, we find ourselves once again in a rivalry with another great power, and this rivalry is far more dangerous. Our rival is far more sophisticated than the Soviet Union ever was.”

Globalization and free-market policies of the past 30 years have failed to tame a wild giant. It is time, as Rubio suggested, to reverse course.

A new iron curtain to isolate China from the global economy of free and democratic countries is the urgent policy to undertake. It would bring China to its knees, like the Soviet Union before.

This reminds Taiwanese of the wise advice from then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in 1996, when he said that Taiwan should adopt a “no rush, be patient” approach on economic engagement with China.

The old adage “cheat me once shame on you; cheat me twice, shame on me” has become self evident in the China policies of countries around the world. Until China becomes democratic, there is no reason to let it make money.

James J.Y. Hsu is a retired professor of theoretical physics.

This article was originally published in Taipei Times Editorial: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2023/03/30/2003796975