Will China gnaw Solomon’s staff?

The Qur'an tells a story about the death of Solomon, in which he died while leaning on his staff. The jinn, who were working under his command, continued to labor, thinking he was still alive. His death was only discovered when a creature (a worm or termite) gnawed through his staff, causing his body to fall. This revealed to the jinn that they did not know the unseen. In the same way, we often do not recognize the turning points of history until certain events bring them to light.

For example, after World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had replaced Britain and France as the world's dominant powers. The world order that had existed before the war—based on colonial national empires—had shifted to a Cold War defined by ideological conflict between the two new superpowers. This transformation was not fully apparent until 1956, when the United States and the Soviet Union pressured Britain, France, and Israel to withdraw from Egypt during the Suez Crisis.

The other example is when the United States led the international coalition to liberate Kuwait in 1991, the absence of the Soviet Union—soon to collapse just months later—was evident. America emerged as the dominant force in a unipolar world order.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, new economic powers such as China and the European Union have begun to rise. However, they have so far failed to truly challenge the United States. On the contrary, they have largely sought to postpone confrontations with the U.S. and to cooperate with it. Trump’s arrogance may make that more difficult in the near future and could push the emerging powers to challenge American hegemony in order to create a multipolar world.

For example, China’s main issue with the United States is Taiwan—a Chinese territory separated by British occupation. China seeks to reintegrate Taiwan, but the United States strongly opposes this to the extent that it deployed the USS Nimitz to the South China Sea to deter any Chinese move toward Taiwan.

On June 17, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, along with its nine air squadrons and an escort force including five destroyers, left the South China Sea to join the USS Carl Vinson strike group in the Arabian Sea after escalating attacks between Iran and Israel. Will China seize the opportunity to annex Taiwan?

If that happens, a third world war will break out. But anyone who has not yet heard the drums of this war must be deaf. The alliances of this war have been forming since Russia invaded Ukraine—with Western support for Ukraine—then the Hamas attack on October 7 and the subsequent genocide in Gaza, as well as mutual attacks between Hezbollah and the Houthis on one side, and Israel on the other. Then came conflict between Pakistan and India, and most recently, between Iran and Israel. All this puts us face-to-face with a Western alliance led by the United States with Israeli and Indian arms, and an Eastern alliance led by China and Russia with Iranian, Pakistani, and North Korean arms.

But will China take this step now? The truth is, this step is inevitable—but its timing depends on China’s calculations, which are marked by extreme patience and deliberation.

Why does Samson destroy his temple?

 

After World War II, the United States began building a bipolar world order that aligned with its rise as a superpower alongside the Soviet Union. This order was based on maintaining a balance between the Eastern bloc, led by the Soviet Union, and the Western bloc, led by the United States. To build this new order, the United States sought, during the 1940s, to establish a set of post-war multilateral institutions that formed the pillars of the “American temple” and made the 20th century the American century. The most important of these pillars were:

1- legal institution: In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill drafted the text of the Declaration by United Nations to define goals for the post-war world. The United Nations served as the stabilizing force of this order, aiming to keep the conflict between the two blocs cold and prevent it from escalating into a hot war. The United Nations became a source of the American legal power, not only because its headquarters are located on American soil, but also because the US is one of only five countries with veto power.

2- Military organization: On 4 April 1949, the American secretary of state Dean Acheson signed the North Atlantic Treaty with eleven countries (mostly in West Europe) in Washington, DC establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) -an intergovernmental transnational military alliance. The member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. This collective security system became the source of the military strength of Western bloc under US leadership.

3- Economical institutions: In 1945 and 1946, the U.S. took concrete steps to create an international trade organization to work alongside the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). When negotiations for a charter for the trade organization collapsed, US signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) with other 22 nations, which came into force on 1 January 1948.

4- Educational institutions: American universities became a destination for talented and brilliant individuals from around the world. To attract individuals with extraordinary abilities in specific fields-such as sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics- the US government introduced the EB-1A visa, often referred to as the "Einstein Visa,"

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world shifted from a bipolar order to a unipolar one, allowing the United States to dominate the world and become the sole superpower. In his book "The End of History", Fukuyama declared the Cold War ended with the victory of western liberalism and predicted a new era of global governance. In this context, "Globalism" was seen as the process of Americanizing the world. 

After the events of 9/11, and the UN’s refusal to provide the US with a legitimate cover to invade Iraq, the arrogance of economic and military power led the neoconservatives to believe that they no longer needed the United Nations, NATO, or the GATT agreement. That is why they are destroying the temple America had built after WWII.

Under President Trump, the U.S. began losing its international leadership. His tariffs are completely at odds with American values about the free market. His conflicts with American universities undermined academic freedom. He ignored NATO countries, withdrew from three United Nations organizations (the Human Rights Council, the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)), threatened the International Court of Justice, and disregarded international law. Is there any clearer evidence of authoritarianism than the fact that the current administration fired more than a dozen officials involved in criminal investigations into Donald Trump?

 

Trump is doing all this while the world is moving toward multipolarity. It seems as though he is handing over the role of global leadership to China and the European Union on a silver platter.