"A parade of Western leaders to Beijing, including French President Emmanuel Macron in December, and more recently, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the United Kingdom's Keir Starmer, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz planning a visit later this month, might suggest a great geopolitical realignment in the making. But to interpret these visits as a strategic defection from the United States is to mistake tactical adaptation for fundamental realignment."
"However, Trump's prolonged trade wars, rough treatment of European and North American partners, and coercive threats shattered illusions of a united Western front. This disorientation soon found its voice in Canadian PM Carney's Davos speech. He declared the end of the US-led, rules-based international order, framing the situation not as a transition but a rupture, where the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must."
Economic engagement with China is being pursued as pragmatic economic diversification while preserving enduring security alliances with the United States. Western visits to Beijing indicate tactical adaptation and strategic hedging, not a wholesale political defection. Prolonged US trade conflicts and coercive diplomacy undermined confidence in a unified Western front and produced political and diplomatic disorientation. Mark Carney framed a rupture in the US-led, rules-based order, exposing vulnerabilities that Beijing sought to explore. Middle powers are seeking strategic autonomy in energy, critical minerals, and supply chains to mitigate coercion and reduce the risk of becoming collateral in great-power competition.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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