The United States is currently the only superpower in the world.
In the past, many countries or blocs challenged it, but these countries or blocs eventually fell silent or disappeared from various means of the United States, and the hegemony of the United States has been maintained until now.
Concept map of American hegemony
Among the countries and groups that have challenged the United States, there have been four "second in the world".
Anglo-Soviet defeat
The first was the British Empire. Although Britain and the United States share the same ancestry, their national interests obviously transcend national attributes, and when two countries of the same origin compete internationally, they must also be divided into high and low.
Obviously, the British Empire lost the competition, and almost all of its overseas colonies were lost, and Britain has now become "Little Britain and almost no Northern Ireland and not much of the United Kingdom".
The United States defeated Britain by raising the cost of maintaining the colonial imperial system, so as to force Britain to abandon its overseas colonies.
British Empire (Cumulative Territory)
After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union continued to spread ideology around the world and promote the principle of "national self-determination".
Coupled with Britain's crotch-pulling performance in World War II and Britain's inaction, the nationalist ideology of the people and elites in each colony began to awaken, so the major British colonies began to become independent.
In the process, the cost of British rule over these colonies continued to increase, and although Britain tried its best to delay the disintegration of the colonial system, Britain was powerless to return to the general trend.
The second is the USSR. As a world pole during the Cold War, the strength of the Soviet Union is beyond doubt. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviet Union also completely lost the Cold War.
The collapse of the Soviet Union
There were many reasons why the Soviet Union lost the Cold War, but the core one was the rigidity of its economic system.
At present, the economic system on the earth is "globalized", and countries are constantly competing and making money by holding their own advantageous industries.
This economic model can give full play to the strengths of each country and maximize the efficiency of global economic development.
And the current economic model is also the economic order pursued by the United States during the Cold War.
But during the Cold War, the economic order pursued by the USSR was not like this. The system of economic and economic associations implemented by the Soviet Union was to give specific production tasks to other countries, and others could only produce fixed industrial products and quantities.
Economic and economic exchanges
For example, the Soviet Union gave Cuba the task of becoming a "sugar production base", producing 1 million tons of sugar per year.
Cuba would only be able to produce sugar, not bananas, or cars. And the amount of sucrose it produces per year cannot be less than or higher than 1 million tons.
The problem of this economic order is very big, although it has tried its best to lower the unemployment rate and reduce the risk of a financial crisis, but it has also greatly reduced competitiveness and social productivity.
In the end, after a series of actions by the United States in the international arena, the Soviet Union's economic order could no longer play, and serious economic problems broke out until it collapsed.
The collapse of the Soviet Union
The weakening of Japan and Europe
The third is Japan. At one point on the eve of the end of the Cold War, Japan was the world's second-largest economy, and its economy was faintly larger than that of the United States.
At the same time, certain economic problems have emerged in the United States, and this has led to the Japanese people beginning to buy a large number of American assets and real estate, and there has even been a public opinion among the Japanese people that they will "buy the United States."
But Japan's economic development was soon interrupted, and the "lost 30 years" began.
The reason why Japan's economic development has been interrupted is simple: Japan has no sovereignty. You don't have sovereignty, and what industry you want to develop and how much investment you make in the industry depends on the faces of others.
The Plaza Accord pitted Japan
Therefore, on the eve of the end of the Cold War, the United States forced Japan to burst the economic bubble and avoid the United States industrially.
It would be impossible for Japan's economy to go further, and Japan's economic development came to a standstill under the severe economic crisis.
The fourth "second oldest in the world" is the European Union.
After the collapse of the Cold War, Europe formed the European Union, hoping to engage in economic and military integration.
But as a result, we have all seen that the current EU Fira is unbearable, and to some extent even a vassal of the United States. Europe has lost its basic autonomy and is being kneaded by the United States at will, like Japan.
The reason why Europe is controlled by the United States is simple: NATO controls Europe's defense, and Europe has not politically withstood American infiltration.
National defense is the foundation of the country, and you need to rely on others for national defense, so naturally you need to look at other people's faces. Europe is dependent on NATO for defense, so it will be much easier for the United States to control Europe.
As for political infiltration, the United States has successfully supported many agents in European politics through a series of ideological shaping, and has slowly taken control of European politics.
Lessons learned from China
The reasons why the above four "world's second" losers to the United States are the internal political system, economic structure, sovereignty, and American infiltration.
If China wants to avoid Britain's backtrack, it naturally needs to be extremely careful in its internal political system to avoid being dismembered by the United States. In fact, in addition to the Taiwan issue, the United States is also exerting its efforts on Xinjiang and Tibet, hoping to split China.
China's annual transfer payments to border areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as policy support, are also largely designed to cushion the United States.
In terms of economic structure, China has built a sufficiently inclusive and outward-looking economic structure. Now China positions itself as the "world's factory", which can predate all industrial products in human society.
Industrial production
Because of China's strong and well-established industrial chain, other countries in the world can always find a place to cooperate with China.
We don't have to worry about sovereignty, which is the most sensitive point for China.
During the Cold War, China and the Soviet Union were at loggerheads because China did not want to cede sovereignty and did not want the Soviet Union to station troops in China. The post-Cold War confrontation between China and the United States is also China's desire to maintain its independence because it does not want to cede its sovereignty.
As for US infiltration, in fact, the US has taken the initiative to provoke a trade war against China, and the US has completely lost the ability to infiltrate China and "evolve peacefully."
Conceptual diagram of the US-China trade war
The act of infiltration must be moisturizing silently and peacefully. The United States is confronting China with great fanfare, and if it can infiltrate, it will be a ghost.
Resources:
[1] The Paper, "Four History" Keywords|What kind of organization is the Committee for Mutual Economic Assistance? 》
[2] Beijing Daily client, "Zhang Weiwei: Europe must return to independence before it can hope to embark on the road to lasting peace"