U.S. 'Axis of Autocracy' Narrative Is a Fantasy
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- U.S. media and former officials are celebrating what they frame as Chinese collapse, with Bloomberg declaring the 'axis of chaos' is hurting and the New York Times asking where Beijing's 'friends' are after Iran's top leadership was 'decapitated.'
- China-Venezuela ties were largely abandoned by Beijing more than a decade ago, with China writing off the relationship over Caracas's 'mismanagement and malfeasance' before Trump's first-term sanctions escalated.
- China-Iran economic ties were real but less significant than China's trade and investment with Saudi Arabia or the UAE, with Beijing growing 'increasingly jaded' on Iran and potentially welcoming a stabilizing new regime.
- The 'Axis of Autocracy' concept was constructed after the 2008 financial crisis as an American elite narrative to redirect post-globalization crisis-of-legitimacy toward great-power conflict, with Beijing itself far more integrated into the global system than the label suggested.
- Trump's assault on Iran 'turned into a fiasco almost immediately,' per the source, and the U.S. economic and technological position against China is 'rapidly eroding' even as the establishment reads Beijing's restraint as license for further coercion.
- The U.S. foreign policy establishment has consistently refused to draw the lesson that a sustainable multipolar framework is needed, with the source warning that Trump's brazen coercion may be showing future officials an 'explosively dangerous path' of unrestrained violence.
Why it matters: The misreading matters because U.S. elites may interpret China's restraint as proof of dominance and license for further coercion, even as the source says U.S. economic and technological leverage over China is 'rapidly eroding' and the Iran operation 'turned into a fiasco almost immediately.' With the second Trump administration and post-Biden hawks eyeing the same playbook, the cost of the delusion is miscalibrated escalation against a China that never bought into the axis concept in the first place.
Ask SkimNews
