The Ideological and Informational Warfare Waged by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping Against America and the World
Or
Savagery Unmasked: Dugin’s Eurasianism and Zhang’s Tianxia As Ideological and Informational Warfare Against the Peoples of the World
The realist school of international relations says that we live in an anarchic situation in which states seek to insure their existence which often translates into maximizing their position at the expense of others. Another word for this anarchic system is the Westphalian system, a term that came into vogue after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 which ended the Thirty Years’ War, something from which the West has not yet recovered. Westphalia ended Christendom, the system by which the Catholic Church with the Pope served as the overarching authority over all the princes of Europe. Instead, there was recognized, and codified by treaty, the existence of a number of nation-states or independent political entities. Each of these states had rights and duties and became responsible for their own individual success or failure.
Despite this individualism amongst states, there developed norms of behavior by virtue of recognition of custom and the entering into treaties or compacts which became known as international positive law. In the Twentieth Century, there arose institutions reflecting these norms of behavior and providing a relatively peaceful world for many decades. This international order served, and still somewhat serves, to moderate state actors, taking away some of the anarchic character of the international system. The international order is now under stress, or perhaps better put, it is under attack.[1]
Offensive operations or actions are a way to achieve ascendancy if not also some modicum of security, and hence the value of the idea that the best defense is a good offense. This is especially so if conducted while the other side does not view itself as being in a war. In other words, surprise and deceit are essential to victory in any war. Since kinetics are costly to all involved, wars assume different modalities. Wars do not always require, or need, a formal declaration and are most effective if carried out without such a declaration. In undeclared wars, ideology is crucial, if not more so, than the other instruments of national power like economic, military, political. Information operations therefore assume critical importance if one is to remain on the offensive without showing it is on the offensive. It is the best way to subvert the will of the opponent so as to get the opponent to do your will so as to achieve certain objectives, which is, after all, what war is about.
The current world war is no exception to this. This brief paper is an attempt to present highlights of the ideological and informational warfare being conducted by principals of the Eurasian Alliance against the West and the international order. The information war aggressively waged by the Eurasian Alliance advances the ideological war and masks the real intentions and nature of the Eurasian effort. In order to do that, it is necessary to briefly discuss threats of the Eurasian Alliance to the international order.
One further note before we jump in. While I may reference Russia or China, my meaning is to refer to the current political leadership of each of those two countries. My reference to Russia, China, or their leadership should also be understood as an implicit acknowledgement that there are likely powerful private interests, parochial and global, that are aiding each of those two regimes.
The Eurasian Alliance – Powerful and De-legitimating
Vladimir Putin is the last great Christian warrior, at least to some. He seems to be fighting for “Christian values” and for ethnic solidarity, so he has supporters in the US and Europe who seem disenchanted with the Liberal Order.[60] His invasion of Ukraine, which he calls a Special Military Operation to soften the blow of his violation of international law thereby weaponizing the very characterization of the action for use in an informational war, launched what many called a civilizational struggle. There is truth to that description of the current world war, but in itself it is inadequate unless one understands the differences between competing worldviews.
Xi Jinping of China is another “autocractic ruler” as some call him, but he does not have the level of support and sympathy in the West as does Putin because people remember the many articles on slave labor in China, the boycotts of Chinese goods for that reason, and the loss of jobs to China. The two are now cooperating with Russia being a major supplier of raw materials for China’s manufacturing industry, and China becoming a major supplier of Russia’s manufactured goods and technology for conducting its war in Ukraine. Their cooperation is significant in that it seems to unite a supplier of raw materials with a manufacturer which has always been a recipe for industrial, political, and military might if history is a guide. Their cooperation is significant also in the sense that it affects the rightness of their respective causes.
If Putin is good and his cause right, then the Russian-Chinese alliance weakens the legitimacy of Putin’s cause for he then becomes part of Xi’s effort to overthrow right order. While Putin’s Russia is one actor, and his actions viewed in isolation are violations of international order, combined with the actions of the Chinese there exists a dangerous synergy and an exponential growth of the threat to global peace, security, and right order. If Xi and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are good and their cause right, then the Russian-Chinese alliance weakens the legitimacy of their cause as Putin’s actions are viewed as a violation of international order and international law. Likewise, while the actions of Xi and the CCP may be viewed in isolation, the alliance with Russia ends the reality of such a view also pointing to a dangerous synergy threatening global peace, security, and right order.
We should be very concerned about the rise of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the rise of a China lead by Xi Jinping and the CCP as well as the collaboration of the two. They are proceeding stealthily in their efforts to gain global power and influence. They are offering a vision of the future that is based on the old maxim that might makes right and the discredited ideas of racial superiority as they threaten years, if not even centuries, of human wisdom and experience that were developed to permit the peaceful interaction of states if not also peoples of the world.
Attacking International Law
In 1605 Hugo Grotius wrote Law of the Sea which articulated the time honored principle that international waters belong to all mankind. This same principle was held by the School of Salamanca and can be traced all the way back to the Emperor Justinian in the Sixth Century. In modern times, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) reinforces this principle.[2]
China under Xi and the CCP claims the entire South China Sea. Through it navigate trillions of dollars worth of commercial shipping and goods every year. It is a major artery supplying China. An arbitral decision in 2016 denied their claim to the South China Sea,[3] but China ignored the proceeding and ignored the ruling.[4] There are regular confrontations between the Chinese Coast Guard and the Philippine Navy in the Spratley Islands, though so far there has not been any gunfire. Earlier in June, China announced that it required all ships going through the South China Sea to obtain permission to do so. This was partly in reaction to US ships passing through the South China Sea at will, and it appears to be setting the stage for claiming provocation and war. With others claiming that Russia was provoked by the West thereby justifying Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in the minds of many, it is not hard to see that Xi and the CCP are planning something similar. If powerful countries can claim international waters for themselves, they stand to control shipping, trade, commerce, and more, to include currencies because commerce is after all about money. This threatens the prosperity and even survival of countries in the region, if not also in the world, and is an affront to US power as well as a disregard of the international order.
Long criticized by the West and international agencies, the Chinese suppress the Uighurs denying them basic rights and even attacking them with things like systematic gang rapes of their women.[5] The UN in recent times set forth a number of conventions for the right treatment of minorities, and it is long held international law that minorities are not to be harmed. Catholic doctrine also sets out the need for minorities to be developed and also protected, which is not what China is doing.
Yet a third indication of the Chinese assault on right order is its effort to destroy the economies of the world by using its manufacturing capability as a weapon. Years ago, it was widely reported that the Chinese government used slave labor for Chinese industries thereby reducing labor costs. This was an important factor which allowed the Chinese to develop their manufacturing capability. The French correctly explained what China is doing by flooding markets with its goods[6] though some claim China is actually helping the world by providing overcapacity in areas where there is no global overcapacity while at the same time dealing with its internal economic difficulties so as to keep its factories from shuttering. However, when economies are harmed, there is a violation of the spirit, if not also the letter, of the law of any of a number of different trading regimes and organizations. The World Trade Organization (WTO), of which China is a member through the good graces and efforts of the United States, is one such organization that has established a largely comprehensive regime for the conduct of international trade. Nowhere in the Marrakesh Agreement that established the WTO exists a carte blanche given to countries to destroy the economies of others. The intent is to advance or promote economic development, and to that extent there exist a number of agreements or annexes that set forth the rules for such while respecting national economies and the development of these economies.[7] The United Nations Charter calls for economic development which is threatened by the Chinese actions.[8] The United States denounced Chinese economic warfare and emplaced tariffs on steel as well as Electronic Vehicles among other items. The European Union followed suit to protect several of its industries.[9]
Recently, a report surfaced of the involvement of the CCP in the international fentanyl trade. This dangerous drug serves to destabilize countries and demoralize and kill people.[10] The reported actions are a repudiation of an agreement reached between Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden in San Francisco in November, 2023, and may also violate any of a number of international conventions against the illegal drug trade.[11]
A fifth action is China’s stated intent to retake Taiwan by means of force[12]. That is the home of the Republic of China, a sovereign state recognized by eleven other states but considered by the Chinese governed as a breakaway province. The current Taiwanese government does not want to reunite with Xi’s China, and that is the cause of much anger in Peking. The use of force as well as threats to use force, constitute violations of the United Nations Charter.[13]
China is not the only one to violate the UN Charter. Russia most certainly did so in February, 2022 with its invasion of Ukraine though it invoked Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, namely the provision on self defense.[14] The reality is that Russia was not under attack then, nor was there even an imminent attack, nor was there even a planned attack of any degree against Russia. Putin’s rationale for the attack was not supported by the facts. Putin failed to resolve or satisfy his dispute with Ukraine, and perhaps also with France and Germany, peacefully as is required by the UN Charter Section 2.[15] Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of international law.[16]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) recently issued two arrest warrants for Sergei Shoigu, Russian Minister of Defense, and Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff, for crimes against humanity consisting largely in targeting the infrastructure of Ukraine.[17] This is in addition to arrest warrants issued more than two years earlier for Putin and Maria Nabilov also for international crimes as defined by the Rome Statute.[18] The Rome Statute sets forth as crimes those things which are considered dangerous to a people or to human life, and are indicative of tyranny. These crimes violate the Christian understanding of state action towards a state’s own people, and also run counter to the concept of jus cogens in international law.
Russia is doing more, and more includes putting to sea a shadow fleet of tankers carrying petroleum, soon to include natural gas, around the world and outside of the realm of international organizations. Using old tankers, there is an environmental danger these tankers may rupture.[19] Associated with this shadow fleet is the failure or refusal of Russia, China, and Iran to protect international shipping most notably in the Red Sea against the Houthis of Yemen.[20] The United States, UK and France work to keep the shipping lanes open as the Houthis targeted ships of many flags and owners regardless of their destination. Though they claim to only target those ships that somehow were connected with Israel or the US all for the alleged purpose of supporting the Palestinian cause against the Israeli war with Hamas in Gaza, the reality is the Houthi fire indiscriminately upon many vessels. Global shipping rerouted because insurers will not cover the costs of navigating the Red Sea.[21] Russia and China are silent on these attacks but the actions of the Houthis are condemned by the US and other Western powers as well as the International Maritime Organization, an international organization. [22]
Putin, according to various media sources, made repeated threats to use nuclear weapons.[23] If true, this is a violation of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.[24]
There is a more serious threat to a right ordered international system. Putin demands Ukraine be neutral, and that Ukraine’s culture be determined by Russia.[25] This is a violation of sovereignty which under international law and Catholic ethics includes the right of a state to have sole responsibility for the care for its own citizens and sole responsibility for the protection of the same which includes making alliances as it sees fit.[26] Along that line, giving Russia veto power over who joins NATO is a violation of national sovereignty of countries either wishing to join NATO or considering joining NATO. In the latest discussion of terms for a truce or ceasefire, it appears Putin did not include that demand. He seems to only want Ukraine to, as the EU says, withdraw from Ukraine by evacuating four of the claimed provinces.[27] This is significant. It indicates that Putin’s military is having trouble taking the territory he wants after nearly two and a half years of bloody fighting, and so it shows how weak Russia really is. By bluffing, or lying, Putin wants to achieve that which he cannot otherwise achieve.
The Messaging
On February 29 the Atlantic Council published a report that explained Russia was engaged in influence operations, or information wars if you will, on social media platforms.[28] Earlier this year there were also hearings before the United States Congress regarding the messaging put forth by the Russians and Chinese, and for the years running up to now the Congress has been examining such disinformation campaigns on social media.[29] The Chinese government is targeting US citizens and Taiwan with Artificial Intelligence Powered Disinformation.[30] Anyone with a social media account like Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter), will see there are information battles underway. What follows is in large measure my personal observations as confirmed by others.
As the Atlantic Council indicates, the goal of the information operations is to weaken Ukrainian resolve to continue the fight. There is also a distinct effort to lessen American support for the war in Ukraine. There are other objectives, which include denigrating America. The shills and bots present Russia as a great place to live and Vladimir Putin as a great leader with a cause to restore “Christian values” or at least to preserve Holy Mother Russia. American divisions and problems are highlighted while the US system of government is ridiculed. The existence of an American people is questioned or doubted or dismissed. The end of the United States, or at least supposed American hegemony, is frequently touted. Putin’s attack on Ukraine was provoked by NATO, these voices argue, which translates into meaning that it was justified. NATO is the bogeyman to these alt voices and it should be disbanded they argue. And of course always these voices claim that America is evil, satanic, opposed to right order and the cause of the world’s problems. Inevitably, to support these claims, the message includes some reference to LGBTQ+ as being promoted by the West. The trolls and shills stress racial differences in the United States and try to inflame the division between the peoples in this country. It is true that they have a lot of material with which to work, which in itself should cause us to ask questions about the loyalty of at least a certain group of the elites and their designs for this country.
Occasionally there will be comments or video clips by some that life in Russia is great or peaceful or in any event better than in the USA. Additionally, so the story goes, everyone in Russia supports the war which is going well for Russia. Of course, the reality is that anyone who criticizes the Ukraine war in Russia is punished. Russians are prohibited from texting or tweeting or otherwise providing information on social media so as not to give away the location or conditions of their loved ones fighting the war. The narrative put forth by the Russians is that Ukraine’s losses are enormous (the Russian MOD recently upped the loss of Ukrainians to 500,000 killed) and that Russian losses are miniscule or at least significantly less than the Ukrainian losses. Of course, these things, and more are just not true. Russian losses in men and material are very high with more information coming out daily from different sources using different methods of analysis.[31] What is more, Russia is emptying its prisons to fight the war while struggling to field effective war material that it gets from North Korea and Iran. Russia is simply not winning like Putin wants you to believe, but the pro-Putin disinformation is real. Putin is trying to demoralize, to trick, the West into not fighting, to trick the US and the European countries into withdrawing support from Ukraine, and to blind all of us to Putin’s game plan.
There is another story line or narrative put forward by the Putin sympathizers. That is one that involves Jews, Nazis and more. Putin stated that he wanted to “de-Nazify” Ukraine and in an interview with Tucker Carlson in February of this year, he admits that he failed in that regard. However, just mentioning Nazis got his Amen Section in the USA all energized to talk about Jews and Nazis, thereby obscuring the issues of Putin’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine, and Putin’s grand scheme. This narrative has slowly fallen to the wayside as it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain in light of the vast suffering caused by the war and the large number of alleged Russian atrocities being visited on the Ukrainians, which some counts place at 125,000 war crimes.[32]
The dislike of Jews is also used to create division when it comes to the situation in Gaza. Campus protests against Israeli actions were organized and instigated by elements sympathetic to the CCP so as to weaken American support for an important ally, Israel, in a geopolitically essential area.[61]
Not all of these themes are present at any one time, or in any one thread on social media, but at least one or two emerge fairly quickly when observing, or engaging with, a troll or pro-Putin account. Frequently some graphic or photograph is attached to the message to drive home the point being made. Photographs of something LGBTQ are most common as are photographs of some text without any sort of attribution or identification of the text. Jeffrey Sachs is frequently cited as an authority against the West, though he is also the one who was responsible for advancing the Millennial Development Goals that so many conservatives and Catholics rail against. The pro-Russian accounts always have fake names, and oftentimes they use Latin phrases or words thinking this will lend gravitas to what they are saying.
The pro-Putin or pro-Russian gang is far better at info operations than the Chinese when it comes to social media. But the Chinese sympathizers and bots are out there. Criticism of China and of Xi Jinping easily earns followers that sport photographs of young, winsome Chinese women with Western names. The discussions are shorter, and more insulting. Usually, confronting the trolls and unmasking them as trolls is sufficient to send them scurrying away. We have no obligation to discuss in good faith or otherwise with deceivers, as they seek not truth but to advance an evil agenda.
Which brings me to my next observation, and that is the prevalence of channels challenging the main stream media narrative. During Covid19 a number of social platforms were de-platforming those who questioned the main stream narrative, and one of the most egregious of the platforms was none other than YouTube. From my own observations, one is hard-pressed to find any programs that are de-platformed for opposing the Russia-Ukraine War, or for any reason anymore. Judge Andrew Napolitano, a 1975 graduate of Notre Dame’s law school and also an alleged harasser of young men (is Napolitano a homosexual?),[33] regularly hosts anti-Ukrainian, anti-American talking heads on his YouTube channel “Judging Freedom.” Douglas MacGregor, a retired Army Colonel, is one who shamelessly repeats many of the talking points mentioned above while incessantly criticizing the US Government policy, mouthing Russian disinformation on Ukrainian losses, and making an occasional ridiculous prediction. Scott Ritter, a convicted sex offender and apparent Russophile, is yet another one of Napolitano’s frequent guests.[34] Napolitano is not censored, and a lot of pro-Putin or anti-Ukraine war shows proliferate on YouTube. No one seems to notice. Why is that?
The Savagery Hidden
Of the two powers, China is by far the stronger. Russia is becoming a vassal state of China for a variety of reasons.[35] Steven Mosher, a long-time pro-life activist and expert on China who has been studying it for more than 45 years, and who I met more than twenty years ago at a pro-life event in Plymouth, Indiana, helps us understand the Chinese motivating ideology. He writes about the current Chinese leadership consisting of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party:
“China’s current crop of Legalists has replaced the decaying myth of communism with a robust race-based chauvinism, and the vanguard of the proletariat has reinvented itself as the protector of the Great Han Race, promoter of its superior culture, and protector of its glorious traditions.”[36]
The Legalists that he references are those in China who seek to give total power to the state and therefore do away with things like right of privacy or right of conscience thereby allowing the “party-state” as he puts it to imprint “its policies wholesale on the minds and bodies of its subjects.” That was the drive behind the “one child” policy and in 2015 the “two child” policy. Only government allowed news and information will be published by the print and online media in China.[37]
According to the Chinese regime, the United States of America is the hegemon keeping China down and preventing it to rise to its right station in the world yet again. A large body of Chinese literature blames America for China’s problems and “holding China down.”[38]
Mosher says the Chinese are suffering from “narcissistic nationalism” and so they justify a long standing trade war, intellectual property theft, and rejection of “universal values” of the West. Meanwhile, there is an increasing military build-up and also plans in place to take Taiwan by force. The leadership is expanding its media reach overseas while spending more than $ 10 billion plus a year on “state sponsored propaganda” while using Confucianism and “his benevolent philosophy of governance” as the front man.[39]
The Chinese goal of domination, repression, and slaughter which comes after overturning the international order, is set forth by Mosher:
“The profound impact that China as a regional hegemon would have on the world should not be minimized. The leaders of the Chinese party-state feel no obligation to honor the current rules-based international order. They will either restructure its institutions to China’s advantage if they can, or failing that, simply ignore them. Existing international agreements and understandings that do not suit China’s purposes will be unilaterally rewritten, or simply jettisoned altogether, on the specious grounds that they are `antiquated,’ `unfair,’ or `unequal.’ We catch a glimpse of the arrogant face of Chinese hegemony in the rejection of the Hague Tribunal’s ruling on the South China Sea, and in the sneering repudiation of Beijing’s legally binding treaty with Britain over Hong Kong. The face of `thuggish and bellicose nationalist,’ as executed Noble Peace Prize winner Liu Xiabobo called it, is itself a reflection of the Maoist `China at the center of the world’ mentality, and will be ever more prominently on display as a self-aggrandizing China gains strength….
“Were China to become the hegemon – the globally preeminent power – the world would necessarily be a far different place than it is today. The mild, half-hearted, vacillating and ultimately benevolent primacy exercised by the United States would be replaced by a hard and unyielding hegemony. The Chinese party-state would narcissistically revel in its newfound power in a way that the United States never did, as what Liu Xiaobo called its `underlying arrogance and self-centeredness’ came again to the fore. Once in command, Liu Warned, `It will “wipe out humiliation through acts of revenge,” as the heroes of Chinese opera do, and stand as master of a powerful China at the center of the world stage.
“A dominant China would also actively promote its principles of governance – one-party dictatorship, a socialist-market economy, and sharp curbs on fundamental human rights – to the far corners of the world.”[40]
Mosher updated his assessments with The Devil and Communist China published this year. In it he explains more fully the meaning of Legalism, which is mixed in with or concealed by Confucianism, as that which sees the “accumulation of people as an indispensable component of power….; suppression of all voluntary associations…establishment of informer networks…use of punishment instead of reward…harsh punishment for violations according to set laws…mutual surveillance and collective punishment….”[41]
Xi Jinping is a redux of Mao according to Mosher. He is “against political dissent, religious expression, and the private sector…” The CCP though for much longer has “been promoting an extremely toxic form of race-based nationalism.” Xi wants to “keep Catholicism under strict control” which manifested itself in an agreement that he reached with the Vatican. That agreement required that the Church meet two conditions: “First, the Holy Father must, without exception, consecrate all the patriotic bishops that he and Pope Benedict…had previously rejected. Second, he must eliminate the underground church, starting with tits bishops….” However, the principles and policies of the CCP must also be taught by the Catholic schools. This is all part of Xi’s China dream which is a “high tech, digital dictatorship so powerful that it will dominate the world.”[42]
Mosher points out that with Communism, Xi, is forcing the Chinese to relinquish their past. Chinese Communism should compel Americans to recover Christianity he emphasizes.[43]
One of China’s nationalist thinkers is Colonel Liu Mingfu, author of The China Dream. He writes of the long held Chinese dream for ascendancy and dominance:
“It has been China’s dream for a century to become the world’s leading nation. It’s a dream that combines the ideals of three of China’s greatest leaders: Sun Yat-sen, the architect of China’s republican revolution, Mao Zedong, the founder of the New China, and Deng Xiaoping, the designer of the Reform and Opening Up of China. The commonality of their struggles is that each aimed to build the Chinese nation into the world’s leading nation. But what does it mean for China to become the world’s leading nation? First, it means that China’s economy will lead the world. On that basis, it will make China the strongest country in the world. As China rises to the status of a great power in the 21st century, its aim is nothing less than the top—to be the leader of the modern global economy.”[44]
An ideology that appears palatable to the world is offered by the Chinese to assist in its world ascent. Xi and the CCP are using a Chinese version of doctrinal or ideological warfare. Zhao Tingyang is a Chinese philosopher and thinker who authored The Tianxia System: A Philosophy for the World Institution. William Callahan, author and student of China, explained this book in a 2008 talk. He said this book showed an “ability to capture people’s interest in Chinese-style solutions to world problems and the unique manner in which the concept of tianxia combines the seemingly contradictory discourses of nationalism and cosmopolitanism together.” China’s worldview is in three parts: “First…the all-inclusive tianxia system would solve the world’s problems through a world institution that embraces difference.” Second, the issue becomes one of “conversion” and not “conquest”. Third, the issue with Zhao and tanxia is that of a “failed world in which disordered chaos reigns.” Tianxia provides the geographical, psychological and institutional bases for a re-ordered world to end the chaos. Psychologically, the “outsider” and the “other” ends and transformation of enemies into friends is implemented.[45]
Callahan says that “while Zhao’s theoretical propositions are original and have stimulated much discussion, those propositions rest on shaky ground. They are primarily based on select statements drawn from China’s rich literary heritage…taken out of context and misrepresented.” While claiming that tianxia is an all-inclusive system, it is actually quite the opposite. It is an “absolute exclusion and hierarchical inclusion to marginalize the West, the people, and other nations along China’s frontier.” Rejecting binaries, Zhao criticizes the West as the “other” and “as the source the immoral individualist thought system that creates chaos and needs to be transcended.” Zhao “marginalized the people in his work by contending that the masses are incapable of thinking through the world and therefore cannot be trusted to act in a truly world interest…. Zhao…criticiz[ed] the common people and calling them names such as `selfish, irresponsible, and foolish.’…tianxia…steamrolls… rather than tolerating difference. Rather than guiding us towards a post-hegemonic world order, Callahan insists that tianxia presents a new hierarchical vision for the 21st century….”[46]
Zhang’s 2021 All Under Heaven: The Tianxia System for a Possible World Order developed these themes. “In this book, Zhao forwards a compelling thesis not only on how we should understand China, but also on how China until recently has understood itself.”[47] Odde Arne Westad in the New Foreword to the book notes that tianxia is “characterized by its utility for contemporary conditions, in which `we must go above and beyond the nation state as a horizon for understanding world politics. We need to take the world as a measure for defining political order and political legitimacy.’” Westad also recounts how the concept used at other periods of Chinese history failed.[48]
While one may question who will lead such a system, it is logical to conclude that China will do the honors. With an ethnocentric society intent on global dominion, we can see that this ideology – the tianxia – which sounds so new and so full of possibilities is an ideological ruse for dominion of all by a Chinese master race.
–Russian masking ideology
Russia has its own philosophers putting forth ideological warfare material. One of the more prominent these days is, of course, Alexander Dugin whose Fourth Political Theory caught the eyes of many in the West who were growing disenchanted with the Liberal Order. Indeed, many of Dugin’s statements and theories resonate with Europeans, Americans, and Catholics because they evoke a right order that was taught by the Catholic Church for years, and even codified in documents in recent times such as Inter Mirifica. But, to be clear, Dugin is not advancing right order as taught by Catholicism.
Dugin advances Neo-Eurasian and is considered to have greatly influenced the rightist movements in Europe as well as Vladimir Putin.[49] Dugin was a new trend in “radical Russian nationalist thought” that “was rooted in the political and cultural philosophy of the European New Right.” Neo-Eurasianism “juxtaposes the ‘Atlanticist New World Order’ (principally the US and the UK) against the Russia-oriented ‘New Eurasian Order’.” The “Atlanticist Order” homogenizes and “dilutes national and cultural diversity that is a core value for Eurasia.” Eurasia suffers from “a ‘severe ethnic, biological and spiritual’ crisis” and will “undergo an ‘organic cultural-ethnic process’ under the leadership of Russia that will secure the preservation of Eurasian nations and their cultural traditions.” Dugin’s Neo-Eurasianism is a political religion that by “the end of the 1990s…took on a respectable, academic guise” and formed part of the anti-American rhetoric of the Russian government.[50]
Rebekah Koffler, a Russian born former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, explained that Dugin in 1997 wrote Foundations of Geopolitics which gained him popularity with the Russian military and political elites. In it, Dugin set out the United States as
“`a total geopolitical rival of Russia.’…that Russia [must] `counteract U.S. policy at all levels and [in] all regions of the earth.’ Russia must `weaken, demoralize, [and] deceive, in order to win,’….`It is especially important to introduce geopolitical disorder into America’s internal reality; to encourage separatism and ethnic, social, and racial conflicts; actively support dissident movements [and] extremist, racist groups and sects; and to destabilize internal processes’….Dugin, who has been referred to by some as `Putin’s Brain,’ has not only advised the Russian president but also the General Staff, which is in charge of developing Russia’s warfighting doctrine and strategy.”[51]
The Russian Orthodox Church has been enlisted in the conflict, becoming an arm of Putin’s ideological and informational offensive. It has been weaponized against the West.[52] “The Russian Orthodox church is involved in advancing ideological warfare for the Russian Government. According to one former insider: `The church has become an instrument of the Russian state. It is used to extend and legitimize the interests of the Kremlin,’ said Sergei Chapnin, who is the former editor of the official journal of the Moscow Patriarchate…”[53]
Russia does not have an established religion, nor is the Russian Orthodox Church the established church of Russia. The Russian Constitution states clearly: “Article 14 1.The Russian Federation shall be a secular state. No religion may be established as the State religion or as obligatory. 2. Religious associations shall be separate from the State and shall be equal before the law.”[54] This is quite significant given Russia’s history in which the Russian Orthodox Church played such a large and formative role until recent times. All of this indicates that the Russian Orthodox Church not only does not have power over Putin and his regime, but that they serve the ideological and strategic goals of Putin.
Koffler notes that intelligent, well-meaning Christians in the US are blinded by Russian disinformation and propaganda:
“Putin’s Russia continues to target the American religious community by promulgating a narrative that Russia is a bulwark of conservative and traditional values that is mounting a decisive effort to combat decadent liberal Western values. Unfortunately, religious Americans who feel increasingly marginalized and even threatened by liberal trends in a society that rejects the notions of traditional marriage and family, and even gender, can be ripe targets for being unwittingly duped by the Kremlin’s propaganda.”[55]
Putin and his regime are instead seeking to advance super nationalism. Lev Gumilev is one of the intellectual fathers of a Russian “`super-ethnos’ encompassing influences of both Slavic people and the nomadic tribes from the eastern Eurasian steppe” and someone who shaped Putin’s thinking. These ideas of “Mother Russia,” with the call of Russians to support it, are part of Russia’s “Foreign Policy Concept, National Security Strategy, and Military Doctrine.” This is all part of Putin’s effort to rebuild the Russian Derzhava, “Empire State”, which is to once again make Russia an empire with little countries around it to protect it and to serve it. [56]
Putin’s own devotion to Russian ethnicity is seen in his autobiography entitled First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia’s President. He said “To live in your own country, surrounded by your own language and people close to you – your friends, your relative, your acquaintances – and receive a little more money that others for that – it’s very advantageous.” Religion is not even mentioned in the autobiography, but he speaks approvingly of the need for the Russian Constitution. That constitution disestablished the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox religion as I noted above. Therefore, neither the Russian Orthodox Church nor the associated religion has any power over him: “The Constitution should enshrine the most general principles. Therefore it lives longer than ordinary law. This is natural, since the Constitution guarantees society certain rules for the long term.”[57]
When it comes to Russian society, if you think that somehow Putin’s conception of the Constitution is anything other than a tool to control, then you are wrong. He stated clearly “from the very beginning, Russia was created as a supercentralized state. That’s practically laid down in its genetic code, its traditions, and the mentality of its people.”[58] This is where Putin is coming from – the ethnic state with totalitarian powers given to the leadership. As Peter Georgescu recently said in an interview,[59] Communism was simply a way for a few to gain wealth and power. So it is with Putin’s plan. It is not a good blueprint for a peaceful, prosperous world seeking to serve God. Putin’s super nationalism, like Xi’s and like Communism, is the way for a few to benefit from the misery of the many.
In Conclusion
The ideology and information operations of Putin and Xi mask their super-nationalist, murderous schemes. They are targeting the current world order and will replace it with their own which will cause great suffering amongst the peoples of the world.
The international order is partly Christian, partly derived from the Natural Law, partly of the Liberal Order, partly from custom. It is capable of being changed, amended, and improved. This world order has brought peace and prosperity, and even allowed the rise of ideologies and forces opposed to it. This same world order provides, and has provided, for many peoples to live together on one planet in relative harmony, while providing many, many other good things.
In order for Xi and Putin to succeed, they have to defeat the USA, and so that is why we are targeted. They want to demoralize us, to get us to fight each other, to surrender our will to resist them and their evil designs, to forget who we are, or to get us to think that somehow Xi and Putin are our friends and their ideologies acceptable.
We must defeat Xi and Putin. To do that, we must first realize that we are at war with Xi and Putin, who are not our friends. To deny that we are in a war with them is akin to denying the existence of Satan, and that is very dangerous. The battleground is now our heart, mind and soul. Xi and Putin are liars and Satan is the father of lies. Each one of us is now a combatant in a struggle for the future, but we are not alone for the Triune God is with us.
Elsewhere I have spoken of patriotism as the essential virtue, and such is never more true than when common enemies appear. We are called to solidarity — to unity — to consider the common good for all of us, to protect our country and our way of life. We are called to stand in solidarity with the peoples of the world. From all that I see, many of the elites are also hearkening to this call. United and patriotic, we can best defend and improve our country and at the same time advance the principles and reality of a right-ordered global community.
[1] The realist position necessarily endorses the Neo-Conservative Movement which seeks to extend American power and hence enhance the resilience of the state. There is an argument that the neo-cons advanced, and advance, a world order that improves the chances of peace and prosperity at the same time. Of note, there is a curious similarity between the neo-cons and the American way of extending power at the beginning of the 1900s as described by Carl Schmitt in his Nomos of the Earth published in 1950.
[2] See, Part VII, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea at https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf
[3] See, “The South China Sea Arbitration: The Republic of Philippines versus the People’s Republic of China,” Permanent Court of Arbitration, at https://pca-cpa.org/en/cases/7/
[4] Shi Jiangtao, “South China Sea: Hague Ruling Rejected by Beijing Still Casts a Long Shadow over Dispute,” June 25, 2024, South China Morning Post.
[5] “China: Draconian Repression of Moslems in Xinjaing Amounts to Crimes Against Humanity,” June 10, 2021, Amnesty International; Steven Diedzic, “Uighur advocates speak out after horrifying accounts of rape and torture in Xinjiang camps in China,” February 3, 2021, Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
[6] William Horobin and Oliver Crook, “China’s Industry Threatens Entire Global Ecoomy, France Warns,” May 26, 2024, Bloomberg.
[7] See, in general, “Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization,” as found at www.wto.org.
[8] See, Preamble of the United Nations Charter which states in relevant part: “WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
“AND FOR THESE ENDS to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples….” as found at www.un.org
[9] See, Nathaniel Taplin, “Why China’s Overcapacity Problem Is About to Get Even Worse, In Seven Charts: Chinese investment in high-tech goods keeps surging, setting up more trade tension with the U.S. and Europe,” June 4, 2024, Wall Street Journal.
[10] Vanda Felbab-Brown, Diana Paz Garcia, and Vibha Bajji, “Chinese crime and geopolitics in 2024,” January 29, 2024, Brookings.
[11] See, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 as amended by the 1972 Protocol, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988. These may be found at the United Nations website, Office on Drugs and Crime, International Drug Control Conventions at unodc.org; “Readout of President Joe Biden’s Meeting with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China,” November 15, 2023, Briefing Room, Statements and Releases, The White House at whitehouse.gov
[12] Kristen Welker, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee, Andrea Mitchell, “Xi Warned Biden During Summit that China Will Reunify with Taiwan,” December 25, 2023, NBC News.
[13] See, United Nations Charter: “Article 2…2. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. 3. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations….”
[14] See, United Nations Charter: “Article 51…Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. …”
[15] See, United Nations Charter: “Article 2…2. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. 3. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations….”
[16] Michael N. Schmitt, “Russia’s `Special Military Operation’ and the (Claimed) Right of Self-Defense,” February 28, 2022, Articles of War. It should also be noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of its promise as part of the December, 1994 Budapest Memorandum not to invade Ukraine and to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine.
[17] “Situation in Ukraine,” June 25, 2024, International Criminal Court, https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-sergei-kuzhugetovich-shoigu-and
[18] “Situation in Ukraine,” March 17, 2023, International Criminal Court, https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and
[19] Jonathan Saul and Renee Maltezou, “Sanctioned Oil Tankers Pose Rising Environmental Risk in Mediterranean, Greece Says,” June 5, 2024, Insurance Journal.
[20] Ahmed Aboudouh, “Yes, China Pressured Iran on Red Sea Attacks – But Only to Protect Its Own Ships,” February 7, 2024, Chatham House; Sam Dagher and Mohammed Hatem, “Yemen’s Houthis Tell China, Russia Their Ships Won’t Be Targeted,” March 21, 2024, Bloomberg.
[21] Philiip He and Steven Knott, “Red Sea Dangers: Increasing Insurance Premiums and Introducing Coverage Exclusions for Vessels Transiting the Red Sea,” February 26, 2024, Policy Holder Pulse.
[22] “IMO Condemns `illegal, unjustifiable’ Attacks on Ships in Red Sea,” May 24, 2024, International Maritime Organization.
[23] Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly, “Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war,” March 14, 2024; Yuliya Talmazan, “Putin warns he could provide weapons to attack the West and issues new nuclear threat,” June 6, 2024, NBC News.
[24] “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” United Nations, at https://disarmament.unoda.org/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/#:~:text=The%20Treaty%20on%20the%20Prohibition,threaten%20to%20use%20nuclear%20weapons.
[25] Anton Troianovski, Adam Entous, Michael Schwirtz, “Ukraine-Russia Peace is as Elusive as Ever. But in 2022 They Were Talking. Representatives from the warring nations held peace talks in the early weeks of the Russian invasion. They fizzled. Documents from those talks show why any new ones will face major obstacles.” June 15, 2024, The New York Times.
[26] See, John Eppstein, The Code of International Ethics (1952), 59-62, 69-75; Antonio Cassese, International Law (2005), 46-67.
[27] See, Sarah Rainsford, Dearbail Jordan, “Putin peace terms slammed at Ukraine summit,” June 16, 2024, BBC.
[28] See, Digital Forensic Research Lab, “Undermining Ukraine: How Russia widened its global information war in 2023,” February 29, 2024, The Atlantic Council, at attlanticcouncil.org.
[29] See, “Doing Russia’s bidding: Snyder calls out GOP `Putin wing’ to their faces in Hill hearing,” MSNBC, April 19, 2024, YouTube.
[30] Dustin Volz, “China Is Targeting U.S. Voters and Taiwan With AI-Powered Disinformation: Findings from Microsoft and others shed light on Beijing’s expanding covert influence operations,” April 5, 2024, Wall Street Journal.
[31] There are a slew of articles on this matter. Most notably Newsweek and Forbes have been providing regular updates on the Russian losses. Also see, Olga Ivshina, Becky Dale, Kirstie Brewer, BBC Russian, “Russia’s meat grinder soldiers -50,000 confirmed dead,” April 17, 2024, BBC.
[32] “UN report details `climate of fear’ in occupied areas of Ukraine, as the Russian Federation moves to cement control,” March 20, 2024, United Nations Human Rights at ohchr.org/en/press-releases; Anthony Deutsch, “Hallmarks of genocide in Russian crimes across Ukraine, Ukrainian prosecutor says,” April 2, 2024, Reuters.
[33] Elise Shafer, “Judge Andrew Napolitano Ousted by Fox News Following Sexual Harassment Allegations,” August 2, 2021, Variety.
[34] Michael Rubinkam, “Ex-UN inspector gets prison in Pa. sex case: AA former United Nations weapons inspector convicted in an online sex sting has been sentenced to up to 5 ½ years behind bars,” October 26, 2011, NBC News
[35] See, Alexander J. Motyl, “Russia is now a Chinese colony – while still foolishly dreaming of empire,” June 15, 2024, The Hill; Also, see “Live: FBI, CIA, DNI Directors Testify at Senate Hearing on Worldwide Threats, [March 11, 2024],” NTD, at YouTube.
[36] Steven W. Mosher, Bully of Asia: Why China’s Dream is the New Threat to World Order, (Regnery Publishing, 2017), 218.
[37] Ibid., 216-217
[38] Ibid., 224-234.
[39] Ibid., 234-260.
[40] Ibid., 269-270.
[41] Steven W. Mosher, The Devil and Communist China: From Mao Down to Xi, (Tan Books, 2024), 37-38.
[42] Ibid., 196, 229, 242, 247.
[43] Ibid., 251, 269
[44] Liu Mingfu, The China Dream: Great Power Thinking & Strategic Posture in the Post American Era (Kindle Edition), 6.
[45] Lelise Gobena, “The Implications Of “Tianxia” As A New World System: William Callahan examines tianxia, a world view that has received wide attention among Chinese intellectuals,” December 4, 2008, USC US-China Institute, https://china.usc.edu/implications-tianxia-new-world-system.
[46] Lelise Gobena, “The Implications Of “Tianxia” As A New World System: William Callahan examines tianxia, a world view that has received wide attention among Chinese intellectuals,” December 4, 2008, USC US-China Institute, https://china.usc.edu/implications-tianxia-new-world-system.
[47] From Ingram Academic and Professional found at https://www.ingramacademic.com/9780520325029/all-under-heaven/
[48] Zhang, All Under Heaven: The Tianxia System for a Possible World Order (University of California Press, Kindle edition), 248 of 7323.
[49] Santiago Zabala and Claudio Gala, ““Putin’s philosophers: Who inspired him to invade Ukraine? To understand the war in Ukraine, we can turn to the men who likely helped built the Russian President’s geopolitical vision,” March 30, 2022, Aljazeera.
[50] Anton Shekhovtsov, ‘Aleksandr Dugin’s Neo-Eurasianism: The New Right à la Russe‘, Religion Compass, Vol. 3, No. 4 (2009), pp. 697-716.
[51] Rebekah Koffler, Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America (Regnery Publishing, Washington, DC, 2021), 22-23.
[52] Koffler, Putin’s Playbook, 22.
[53] Andrew Higgins, “In Expanding Russian Influence, Faith Combines with Firepower,” September 13, 2016, The New York Times.
[54] “Russian Federation 1993 (Rev. 2014),” Constitute as accessed https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Russia_2014. The Russian Constitution on the Russian Government website is inaccessible.
[55] Koffler, Putin’s Playbook, 197.
[56] Koffler, Putin’s Playbook, 52-60.
[57] Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia’s President (Perseus Books, 2000), 184-185.
[58] Ibid., 186.
[59] Peter Georgescu and David Westin, “Wall Street Week,” July 5, 2024, Bloomberg News.
[60] This dissatisfaction is mostly of recent cause meaning the cultural or social changes of the last 40 to 75 years. This was largely the result of the weakening of the Federalist system of government and social organization in the United States. The Federalist system, properly understood and maintained, is a good solution to many of the societal issues of today. Also, the Federalist system provides a way by which to order the world, a topic of further discussion elsewhere.
[61] Joshua Klein, “Major Report Uncovers CCP-Linked Influence Behind Left-Wing Anti-Israel Protests In U.S.,” May 15, 2024, Breitbart.