American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, in his titled ‘The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, has hypothesized a new understanding of the post-Cold War order. He has posited that people will conflict along and find cohesion within the boundaries of different civilizations in the new world order. Huntington has divided the world into eight ‘major’ civilizations: Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, Western, African, Hindu, Orthodox, and Latin American.
In line with the new understanding of Huntington, the United States (US), the self-proclaimed custodian of Western civilization, first targeted Islamic civilization as the most potent threat to the Western one. The US and its allies fought a long war on terror and razed many promising Muslim countries to the ground. Thus they uprooted the possible rise of Islamic civilization.
Now the US has targeted Chinese civilization as the superpower is suffering from the pending anxiety of losing the supremacy of Western civilization to the Chinese one. The US and its allies have, therefore, started an all-out, but unproclaimed, war against China to deter its rise to the global stage.
For the same reason, the allies never buy time to stand in the way of possible successes of China. They spare no efforts to spoil the progress of the East Asian nation. In doing so, they have employed Western media just as they were unleashed against Muslims to eliminate the potential growth of Islamic civilization.
As part of their all-out war to cripple China, the allies have long been trying to mar the successful organization of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by China. The US and a fistful of its allies have unilaterally claimed not to send any officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics, China has cleared that it never invited the US to the Olympics though. This has proven how much lower the US can stoop to deter China.
The US has also exerted its leverage on different countries to follow its suit, but the world has not joined the US in the so-called diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the US has eventually been sidelined over the issue in the global community.
Despite the US frowns and wild surge of Omicron infections, a total of 32 foreign heads of state, heads of government, members of the royal family, and heads of international organizations joined Chinese President Xi Jinping at the spectacular opening ceremony of the Winter Games in Beijing on Friday evening.
The heads of state, heads of government, and members of the royal family including six from Europe, five from Central Asia, three from the Middle East, two from South America, and others from Asia, the Pacific, and Africa graced the opening ceremony.
The world leaders including Presidents of Russia, Egypt, Serbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Singapore, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan attended the fabulous ceremony. The King of Cambodia, Prime Ministers of Greece, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Prince of Monaco, Princess of Thailand, Emir of Qatar, and Crown Princes of Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi also joined the star-studded ceremony.
Besides, Deputy Prime Minister, Sports and Tourism Minister, and Speaker of the National Assembly of South Korea, Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Science and Culture Minister of Finland, Sports Minister of France, Minister of Sports of Romania, Tokyo 2020 organizing committee president, Japanese Olympic Committee president, and Japanese Paralympic Committee president also attended the heavyweight event.
Secretary-General of the UN, President of the UNGA, Director-General of the WHO, Secretary-General of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, president of New Development Bank, Secretary-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization were among the heads of the international organizations to adorn the ceremony.
Many more leaders of foreign countries and international organizations also conveyed their wish that the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics will be a complete success. The leaders included the supreme leader of North Korea, the First President of Kazakhstan, Presidents of the Czech Republic, Iran, Mongolia, Indonesia, Maldives, Tunisia, South Sudan, and Senegal, the Fourth and the Fifth Kings of Bhutan, and Kings of Jordan and Bahrain, but to name a few.
To the utter surprise of many analysts, dignitaries from many countries considered long-standing allies including NATO members and important partners of the US stood beside the Chinese president at the ceremony. The presence of dignitaries from South Korea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Finland, France, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand are seen as the tremendous victory of Chinese foreign policy and the charismatic leadership of President Xi Jinping.
Analysts are of the view that the presence of such a large scale of foreign leaders is an unprecedented offline gathering of top leaders since the pandemic. They think the gathering underscores China's capacity of unifying others amid a challenging time, which also signals the widely shared support and expectations of the global community for the Games and completely defies the trivial voices of the US-led Western clique in calling for a ‘diplomatic boycott.
I firmly believe that such a huge gathering of global leaders, despite the US pressure and wild surge of Omicron infections, is an outcome of the calculative and matured diplomacy of China. The Chinese policy of putting humanity first and extending its helping hands towards the world during the struggling time of the pandemic has paid off well, and world leaders have finally rallied behind President Xi Jinping against all odds and difficulties.
These leaders have also showcased their sincerity in firmly supporting China and the Olympic Games. The gathering is also a strong response to the tactics played by the US on calling for a ‘boycott’ of the Games, highlighting the failure and unpopularity of the US and its boycott diplomacy. In my eyes, the international community has recognized and supported China's foreign policy and multilateralism by rallying behind the Chinese president at the ceremony.
- Md Enamul Hassan is a news editor at the China Media Group (CMG) in Beijing, China