World can’t be only subject to US, West: Chinese daily

The world cannot be only subject to the US and the West, said a state-run Chinese daily which warned that “things will get tough if Washington suspects any organization that includes China and Russia”.

Global Times in an editorial “Anxiety over Ufa summits unnecessary” said that as no head of a Western state will attend the Ufa summits, “the West has again heightened its vigilance”.

BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summits are being held from Wednesday to Friday in Ufa, Russia.

It said that the worries of the Western countries are all stereotypical.

“For instance, they think the Ufa summits indicate a confrontation with the West and consider China-Russia strategic cooperation as an alliance or axis. These appear to be stronger and more unequivocal as China, Russia and other BRICS countries take increasing shares of the world economy.”

The daily said that no one in the BRICS or the SCO will think their memberships mean there is no need to care about their relations with the West.

“The two organizations do not aim to confront the West. However, things will get tough if Washington suspects any organization that includes China and Russia, but excludes the US out of anti-West intentions. This logic means you must accept US leadership or be considered anti-West.”

The editorial said the US should be less stressed. “It is no longer a time when national security competition is omnipresent. Globalization and power shifts have also deeply affected economic competition. The world’s diversity today cannot be interpreted using old mentalities.”

It went on to say that BRICS countries are “not so ambitious as to wish to completely change the current international order, nor do they have the strength”.

“They actually hope to improve their position and treatment in the current order so as to achieve better development. This deserves some understanding from developed countries,” it added.

The editorial added that as countries turn pragmatic, “interest groups engaged in political, economic and military areas are always converted into a community of common interests”.

“The world cannot be only subject to the US and the West. China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative and Russia’s Eurasia Economic Union program cause no suspicion from Beijing and Moscow even though there is some overlap in Central Asia. But the US has felt alarm. This can only be attributed to its narrow-mindedness,” it said.

The daily said that the US and “its followers need not consider everything as a confrontation. With so many lessons in the 20th Century, in this century great powers should learn to get along more smartly”.