Views: 115Beyond confrontation: How China unveils the West’s imperative to adapt Gordon Dumoulin 22/07/2025 This article is reproduced with the permission of Gordon Dumoulin, the author(s) of “China21 Journal” The gloves of performative virtue are off in the West. For years, the “China threat” narrative was cloaked in moral superiority, recasting rules of law as a “rules-based order,” politicizing human rights, and wielding ideology as a strategic tools. Washington now openly anticipates a major power confrontation with China. Brussels appears to be following suit, with only a few lone dissenters standing apart. Beijing, described by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as the “sole pacing threat,” commands Washington’s full attention. The objective is clear: to contain China’s rise across multiple fronts: economic strength, high-tech innovation, military capability, and geopolitical influence. If Europe, nce clinging to its self-image as “the world’s garden surrounded by a vast jungle,” as described by Josep Borrell, … Continue reading The backbone of China’s spinal cord