The fight to retain hegemony is not a defense of d...

The fight to retain hegemony is not a defense of democracy

Monica Cheru- Managing Editor

While US President Donald Trump has been clear that the tariff wars—whose effects are affecting economies across the world, including the US—are about convincing manufacturers to base their industries in the US, there is the overarching ominous narrative of the “Chinese threat to global security.”

Fear of this undefined danger presented by China is pervasive in the West, reaching hysteria levels on social media as users predict the impending military attack of China on various countries. Conveniently, in such a setting, Trump’s talk on repressing Chinese influence and development does not need any other explanation or justification.

Yet interestingly, an analysis of the US and China over the past four decades creates a picture that leads to the question as to which power is the real threat to global security.

From Ronald Reagan’s actions in Libya and Grenada to Trump’s current drone strikes in Yemen, the pattern is consistent: global engagement through force.

George W. Bush’s invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) resulted in civilian deaths estimated between 200,000 and over 1 million in Iraq alone, with young children and aid workers included in the tally.

The US and UK stand accused of bombing vaccine warehouses, destroying roads, and deliberately bombing civilian targets.

Barack Obama launched drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia with Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimating civilian deaths from drone warfare between 384 and 807

Donald Trump, in his first term, continued wars in Afghanistan and expanded drone operations. He also authorized the 2020 assassination of Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

Joe Biden was responsible for a messy pullout from Afghanistan. Then, together with other western leaders, he engineered what Trump has called the proxy war in Ukraine. Casualty figures are not known, but many observers put them at over 1.5 million and rising.

Today, Trump is responsible for drone strikes in Yemen and the US-backed ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The US maintains over 750 military bases worldwide. It does not hesitate to deploy troops or weapons in the name of defending freedom and democracy.

But these interventions often bring chaos and suffering instead.

• Iraq War (2003–2011): Over 1 million deaths, millions displaced.

• Afghanistan War (2001–2021): At least 240,000 people killed, including 71,000 civilians.

• Libya (2011 NATO-led intervention): The fall of Gaddafi plunged Libya into years of civil war, with an estimated 25,000+ dead and a fractured state.

• Yemen (ongoing): American drone strikes and support for the Saudi-led coalition have contributed to what the UN calls “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”

Despite these statistics, US actions are often portrayed as necessary or humanitarian.

In the same period, from Li Xiannian to Xi Jinping, the Chinese leaders have started no major foreign wars. While China has had territorial disputes (South China Sea, Taiwan rhetoric), it has not engaged in combat-led invasions or large-scale bombings of other countries.

The Chinese military has largely focused on regional defense, internal control, and strategic posturing rather than foreign invasions.

Taking it even further, the US positions itself as a human rights champion and claims moral high ground to censure China on its domestic actions. But again, close analysis shows a more complex picture. The US is in no position to pontificate over any other nation.

The Guantanamo Bay detention facility that Barack Obama promised to shut down remains open with over 30 detainees imprisoned without trial.

The facility conveniently operates outside US legal strictures, allowing indefinite detention and the most sadistic torture, which rivals that of the worst Nazi camps.

The Patriot Act, passed in 2001, eroded domestic civil liberties through mass surveillance, indefinite detention of immigrants, and unchecked executive power. Most provisions still exist today.

The US is a place where systemic racism and police brutality are standard. The police kill over 1,000 people annually, with Black and Latino males contributing a disproportionate number of the victims.

The murder of George Floyd in 2020 sparked global protests, but the #BlackLivesMatter movement did not result in true meaningful change.

While Trump’s unilateral deportation of migrants is currently topical, such mass deportations and migrant detentions are typical of the US government under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Migrants, including children, are held in overcrowded, often inhumane detention centers.

The U.S. criticizes China for its Great Firewall, media censorship, and digital monitoring. But the US also conducts mass surveillance of citizens (as revealed by Edward Snowden) and cracks down on whistleblowers like Julian Assange.

The US uses big tech to shape public discourse and cannot pass the test on freedom of expression in practice vs. principle. It has long abused its global media dominance, labeling wars as “interventions and civilian deaths as “collateral damage.” Domestic abuses are trivialized as “isolated incidents.”

On the other hand, Chinese actions, often blown out of proportion and taken out of context, are framed as existential threats. Fake news is also used to create the image of a dangerous China about to attack poor innocent people—read Westerners—and take away their freedom.

But many people across the world, including in the West, are waking up to the reality that the picture is more complex. That the real difference between the US and China may not be in who is better—but in who gets to define the terms of debate.

As the world grows more multipolar, the narrative of moral superiority is giving way to a more honest global conversation, one where accountability is universal, not selective.

It’s time for a world where the world must accept that the fight for continued hegemony and destructive global autocracy cannot be defined as defense of democracy.