Analysts long assumed a Middle Eastern blockade would cripple China due to its reliance on imported oil, but that assumption is dangerously out of date. Having spent years hoarding strategic energy reserves, increasing overland Russian imports and cultivating diplomatic leverage, Beijing has engineered a position of considerable strength, which it has been using to its advantage.
I always say, as much as the Western-led technological and economic innovation did bring prosperity, it is at the expense of the long term because it brought short term materialism and profiteering mindset. A lot of Western companies prioritise next quarter earnings over long term sustainability. That is not to say that other cultures aren’t materialistic and greedy, being an Asian I notice that older generations are materialistic because they grew up poor in post-World War II and colonial era, but East Asian culture stands out more because of Confucian values of thinking long term with state backing.
Japanese companies are unafraid to branch out and diversify a lot; like Nintendo going from being playing card manufacturer to becoming a videogame giant, and Sony coming from electronics to videogames and now finance. They do this if the sector they are in is no longer commercially viable in the future. Meanwhile, Western companies fight tooth and nail to keep their dying business model going (I’m talking to you fossil fuel companies), because they are afraid of next quarter losses.
As for China, they have made a mistake of resting with laurels on their heads in the past, having become complacent for being the centre of trade and culture for 600 years. Europe was clamouring to trade with China, and European imperialism and colonisation started as motivation by wanting to trade with China. The country is called “Middle Kingdom” after all in Mandarin, implying it’s the centre of the world, which is still true in many ways.
But China got overtaken by the West and was wrecked in the 19th and 20th century. Whether it’s Nationalists or Communists who end up ruling the entirety of China, I think both factions are guided by past mistakes of the imperial order of becoming too corrupt and complacent, and don’t want to repeat it again in the modern world. China now thinks long term, it is the West who are now experiencing the mistakes that Imperial China had done.