What utter tripe, the only truly expansionist power is the US and its European vassals. Authoritarian? You should take a long cold look at your own country. The "Hoover History Lab" says it all, a Cold War view of history and the present.
That their views were formed by their countries’ experience in WWII is not in doubt. Their defensiveness against a world that does not understand the significance of their experience is not in doubt. What is missing here is their status as deeply ethnonationalist. Xi is the ultimate Han chauvinist, intent on recreating his state as a culturally monolithic Han state by stamping out any other languages and cultures within China than Han culture (and history). Putin is willing to massacre Ukrainians or anyone else who stands in the way of his Great Russian state. (His attitude to non-Great Russians is clear from his comments on local ethnic languages and his habit of throwing people from those ethnicities into the Ukraine war.) For both, their vision revolves around a strong ethnonationalist state.
It was a grave mistake to allow Japan a free pass for it's war crimes, and trying to re-habillitate their reputation with Pikachu and Hello Kitty doesn't hold any water with those who remember, and those who recognize the same xenophobia and toxic attitudes today.
This article is s cinical, biased account of both countries struggle against fascism during WW2. To state that the Chinese Communists did not fight against the Japanese is either total ignorance of history or outright misinformation. (Or could you call it propaganda?) It shows great disrespect for all the people who died during the Japanese occupation.
Authors who use the internal monolog biographical approach to history often jump to strange conclusions such as here. The turning point in the Ukraine conflict wasn't when Putin saw the Ukraine government as composed of Nazis ghosts from his families past but when the US attempted to extend NATO to the borders of Russia and the US refused to allow Zelenskii to negotiate an end to the war that was then being attempted by Turkey. It's sad to see articles like this that reduce real national interests and points of realpolitic decision making to psychobabble.
"Unlike Putin, [Xi] wants to benefit from economic, financial, and technological ties while he can. The question is whether Xi can achieve both struggle and pragmatism at the same time." Putin of course would want to benefit from such ties, but NATO or European troops on his doorstep are not worth it.
"No Western nation is convinced that the Ukrainians are Nazis, as Putin falsely alleges." The sentence is not meaningful couched in such a general form. Of course there are Nazi elements with significant influence if not power.
Reality - the US has been scheming to do a regime change in Russia and China for decades - along with dozens of countries. Xi and Putin are 100% correct to view the US as a revisionist colonial power attempting to turn back global progress by skullduggery if not outright force. Heck, US leaders from both parties and their policy-formulating think tanks brag about their attempts to bring others in line for the purpose of extending US influence and preventing any other power from having what the US gets to have.
If there is any doubt about the moral valence of the "West", or at least those they entrust to lead their nations, then take a look at how they line up to whitewash and materially support Israel's genocide in Gaza + additional war crimes in the greater region. The world outside the G7 can see the former colonial powers for what they really are just fine.
This was insightful beyond all the news about the military parade
Excellent insight. Thanks 🙏.
What utter tripe, the only truly expansionist power is the US and its European vassals. Authoritarian? You should take a long cold look at your own country. The "Hoover History Lab" says it all, a Cold War view of history and the present.
That their views were formed by their countries’ experience in WWII is not in doubt. Their defensiveness against a world that does not understand the significance of their experience is not in doubt. What is missing here is their status as deeply ethnonationalist. Xi is the ultimate Han chauvinist, intent on recreating his state as a culturally monolithic Han state by stamping out any other languages and cultures within China than Han culture (and history). Putin is willing to massacre Ukrainians or anyone else who stands in the way of his Great Russian state. (His attitude to non-Great Russians is clear from his comments on local ethnic languages and his habit of throwing people from those ethnicities into the Ukraine war.) For both, their vision revolves around a strong ethnonationalist state.
An excellent essay, gentlemen. Thank you, I added a link to the further reading list in this:
https://chinaheritage.net/journal/70-20-10-and-the-parading-of-lies-in-beijing-on-3-september-2025/
It was a grave mistake to allow Japan a free pass for it's war crimes, and trying to re-habillitate their reputation with Pikachu and Hello Kitty doesn't hold any water with those who remember, and those who recognize the same xenophobia and toxic attitudes today.
This article is s cinical, biased account of both countries struggle against fascism during WW2. To state that the Chinese Communists did not fight against the Japanese is either total ignorance of history or outright misinformation. (Or could you call it propaganda?) It shows great disrespect for all the people who died during the Japanese occupation.
What garbage..
Authors who use the internal monolog biographical approach to history often jump to strange conclusions such as here. The turning point in the Ukraine conflict wasn't when Putin saw the Ukraine government as composed of Nazis ghosts from his families past but when the US attempted to extend NATO to the borders of Russia and the US refused to allow Zelenskii to negotiate an end to the war that was then being attempted by Turkey. It's sad to see articles like this that reduce real national interests and points of realpolitic decision making to psychobabble.
Two sentences undermine the entire analysis.
"Unlike Putin, [Xi] wants to benefit from economic, financial, and technological ties while he can. The question is whether Xi can achieve both struggle and pragmatism at the same time." Putin of course would want to benefit from such ties, but NATO or European troops on his doorstep are not worth it.
"No Western nation is convinced that the Ukrainians are Nazis, as Putin falsely alleges." The sentence is not meaningful couched in such a general form. Of course there are Nazi elements with significant influence if not power.
It is this anti-China publication that is weaponizing WW2. Is it funded by NED?USAID? The CIA?
but there is no more USAID...
More simply, fascists are fond of militarism.
Reality - the US has been scheming to do a regime change in Russia and China for decades - along with dozens of countries. Xi and Putin are 100% correct to view the US as a revisionist colonial power attempting to turn back global progress by skullduggery if not outright force. Heck, US leaders from both parties and their policy-formulating think tanks brag about their attempts to bring others in line for the purpose of extending US influence and preventing any other power from having what the US gets to have.
If there is any doubt about the moral valence of the "West", or at least those they entrust to lead their nations, then take a look at how they line up to whitewash and materially support Israel's genocide in Gaza + additional war crimes in the greater region. The world outside the G7 can see the former colonial powers for what they really are just fine.
Further to my prior comment about nazification in Ukraine, take a look at this.
https://azovlobby.substack.com/p/nazification-of-the-memory-war