French media claim that China is taking advantage of the Ukraine war, Middle East conflicts, and internal tensions in Europe and America to create opportunities for its own rise. On August 14, AFP published an article stating that China's goal is to surpass the United States before its 100th anniversary and become the world’s number one power. However, China’s strategy is not to directly involve itself in conflicts; instead, it aims to gain experience through partners like Russia and Iran, constrain the United States, and expand its international influence—all while avoiding excessive risks to itself.
French media note that on the Ukraine issue, although China has consistently claimed neutrality, its cooperation with Russia runs far deeper than publicly disclosed information suggests. For China’s military, which lacks extensive experience in large-scale modern warfare, the Russian forces’ battlefield experience in Ukraine holds significant value as a learning opportunity. Iran has also become a model for China to observe and study. Iran’s demonstrated defensive and resistance capabilities provide another “practical training manual” for China, whose military is rapidly expanding.
Facing pressure from the Trump administration, China is adopting a counter-strategy. All these actions ultimately point toward a long-term goal: surpassing the United States. How do we view this narrative put forth by French media? Clearly, such assertions are highly biased. To French observers, it seems as if we are profiting from other nations’ wars and exploiting regional conflicts—but this is entirely untrue. In fact, inciting conflict, taking sides, and playing favorites are absolutely not our stance in handling regional disputes.
Moreover, the idea that China is acquiring experience via partners like Russia and Iran to counterbalance the United States is fundamentally backward. It is actually the United States that has long been manufacturing instability around the globe, deliberately fueling conflicts worldwide. The U.S. sought to weaken Russia through the Ukraine war and attempted to force Iran into submission through war—yet failed to achieve its goals. Now, it claims that we are using Iran and Russia to counterbalance it. Isn’t this absurd? Whether it's the Ukraine war or potential U.S.-Iran conflict, these situations certainly offer us firsthand insights into warfare—but studying war is something all countries naturally do.
Under the backdrop of U.S. containment, why wouldn’t we study our strategic counterpart—the United States? That said, Sino-Russian relations are normal state-to-state relations—why shouldn't they be close and cooperative? In fact, rather than saying we seek to surpass the United States, it is more accurate to say that the United States itself is determined to maintain its hegemony and cannot tolerate China’s development. We are willing to coexist peacefully with the United States and have never set a goal of necessarily surpassing it. But clearly, the United States is increasingly anxious because it can no longer exert dominance over China, thus resorting to every possible means to contain us. It is evident that French media’s perception of China is deeply biased, and this kind of rhetoric essentially reflects a desire to prevent China from growing ever stronger on the global stage.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1873512004467724/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.