By Alexander Luyima | Director Community Programs and Information (ADSON)

At this stage of the so-called “trade war,” you might be asking: Why did the United States decide to confront China in the first place? President Donald J. Trump, now serving his second, non-consecutive term, claims it’s about fair trade. But that’s a distraction. The deeper reality is much more ominous: this isn’t about trade — it’s about global dominance and survival.

According to senior U.S. military officials, a direct military confrontation with China isn’t a far-off scenario — it’s a real possibility in 2025.

To understand why, we need to examine the machinery behind the global system: globalization. Since the end of World War II, the process of globalization — linking countries economically, politically, and culturally — has followed a Western-led blueprint. While European empires formally collapsed, their strategies and privileges quietly transferred to American hands.

As JD Vance, a leading voice in the current administration, explained:

> “The plan was always for America and other rich countries to stay at the top of the value chain, while developing nations stayed cheap and dependent.”

In other words, it was neocolonialism — the same imperial playbook, updated for the 20th and 21st centuries. Western-led institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank were designed not just to “help” poor countries, but to discipline them, ensuring they didn’t challenge the Western order.

Whenever nations tried to chart an independent course — whether through nationalizing their resources or aligning with alternative powers — the U.S. responded with coups, sanctions, or military intervention. This worldview is rooted in centuries of orientalist and imperialist thinking, assuming that the Global South would never rise to challenge the Global North.

But the system cracked.

> “The countries that manufacture eventually become the ones that innovate,” admitted a U.S. Vice President during an off-the-record security briefing.
“We built this system to exploit them, but now they’re winning at our own game.”

China didn’t just survive the Western-led global economy — it mastered it. Today, it leads in electric vehicles, solar energy, AI, semiconductors, 5G, and digital finance. It’s the largest trading partner for more than half the world, including many Western allies. Its rise isn’t due to communism or authoritarianism — it’s because it played the capitalist game better than the architects expected.

China is also challenging the supremacy of the U.S. dollar through new digital finance systems. Its growing influence across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia is forging new alliances that bypass traditional Western power. It’s even gaining moral capital by publicly supporting Palestinian liberation, positioning itself as a champion for the Global South.

Meanwhile, under President Trump, the U.S. is doubling down. We see this in the battle for mineral rights in Ukraine, efforts to control Arctic resources like Greenland, the demonization of immigrants, the weaponization of tariffs — and the continued support of Israeli aggression in Gaza.

Let’s be clear:
This isn’t a trade war. It’s a war for global leadership. For control of finance, innovation, morality, and power.

China is refusing to stay in its assigned role in the world order. And for the first time in decades, the United States is facing a serious competitor not just militarily, but economically, technologically, and ideologically.

So what do we do?

We organize. We resist. We build real alternatives to imperialism and global exploitation.

You can start by joining the movement for informed, conscious resistance. Check out the latest issue of Conscious Citizens Dispatch, where we break down what comes next and how to prepare for it.
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