The intelligence and strategy game that the Chinese call “weiqi”, the Koreans call “Baduk” and the Japanese call “Go”, has a history of thousands of years and is also a tool that reflects the cultural codes of the Far East. The training for this game, played on a 19x19 board, is given in schools for intelligence and character development. Go is a simple yet complex game, easy to learn but difficult to play. The pieces do not move after they are placed, but you die when surrounded by your opponent. Its characteristic is that it is based on patience, balance and long-term planning.
Chess, on the other hand, is a strategy game that has been included in the cultural sphere of the Western world since the Middle Ages and has been modernized with the cultural codes of that region, although it originates from India and Iran. The goal is to checkmate the king, the most valuable player of the opposing side, with pieces that have different mobility on an 8x8 board. You must be both offensive and defensive. Since today’s foreign policy arena is seen as a chessboard that reflects the Western system’s view of the world, the world is also subject to a parallel reading. But what if someone took the game from the chessboard to the Go board?
The great power competition of the 21st century has turned into a struggle that deepens not only in the military, economic or geopolitical fields, but also in the technological and psychopolitical fields. It is not possible to understand this struggle with old paradigms. In order to answer questions such as “What are Trump and his team doing; why are they doing it; how are they doing it; are they smart or crazy; where did they come from now?”, it is necessary to take a good look at the Chinese earthquake that rose like a tsunami and whose first waves started to hit the shores. The game no longer continues in the center like in chess, with bloody clashes and victims. China, which has patiently taken the center under siege from the sides, piece by piece, is holding the closing ceremony of a period it has defined as the “century of shame” since the 19th century, and in which it has faithfully healed the deep wounds it received from the imperialist Western attack.
The US, under the leadership of Trump, is in a sense forced to do all those things that seem absurd. It may be because of the lust of the fight in the center and the fact that they think the image of narcissistic mastery is real, they have only just realized what stage the siege on the periphery has reached. The empire model, where you take all the people of the world against you, make the rules you set and the institutions you establish worthless; and predict that you can establish it despite the resistance of others, does not work. You are not a ‘king’; you do not have a queen either! The game is no longer chess anyway.
In a period when the US has begun to redefine its position in the world, old paradigms, that is, themes such as democracy, liberal economy, freedoms, and the Western alliance, are no longer valid. There is a Trump administration that is trying to build a wall against the tsunami. We will see how successful it can be. The belief that there is no strategy is wrong, and we do not necessarily need to read the world through the eyes of names like Mearsheimer and Brzezinski.
The new competition is concentrated both on geopolitical lines that will secure alternative trade routes and in the field of technology and cyberspace. The US administration is trying to curb China’s rise, especially in the fields of semiconductors, 5G and artificial intelligence, with license bans, export restrictions and corporate embargoes. Since Trump’s first term, there is a clear strategy of prohibition, restriction and pressure on allies. China has become an enemy rather than a rival, although it is not stated too openly.
China, on the other hand, has moved from Deng Xiaoping’s “hide your light, wait for your time” strategy to the “time has come” stage. With their smiling faces (!), they have managed to grow stronger in the economic and technological fields and expand their global sphere of influence through infrastructure investments and technology exports. While developing alternative markets, they have also strengthened domestic demand; they have managed to deepen their economic ties between ASEAN and Africa and establish a network surrounding the center of the system from the side.
Africa is now a Chinese continent; Europe is on its knees; and Putin’s Russia has been forcibly pushed into China’s arms (until Trump). The “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative is not just an integration area that brings together nearly 80 countries and extends along land and sea routes, but a new system proposal woven with fiber optic networks, artificial intelligence centers and cloud systems placed like Go stones. It is sheer madness to ignore the burning fire that the dragon carries inside.
