The western hall of mirrors again!

February 9, 2026

An excellent article displaying the far greater subtlety of the Chinese culture than the obtuse and aggressive one inherited from the warring tribes or Europe. It highlights the propensity of the West both to view its governance model as “the end of history” and its similarly self centred view that all of humanity will be the same as them: devious, exploitative and power hungry. They treat the extraordinarily different historical, political, economic and cultural development of other civilisations as being of lesser value than ours as the pinnacle of human achievement. A brief and even cursory look at our blood-soaked and richly flawed history should have been sufficient to dispel and such presumptions.

Since 1978 China has adopted the five principles of peaceful co-existence espoused by China, India and Myanmar as long ago as 1954. These derive much of their origins from Confucianism. They are mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each others internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, peaceful co-existence and equality and mutual benefit.

The west, on the other hand, continues to look into a mirror when assessing the motives of others, and continue to see themselves reflected! Hence the decline of the west and the rise of China!