The US has historically disguised the true nature of its relations with nations that stood in the way of its ambitions. Reversing the order of cause and effect, it has projected fear of harm from other nations even as it was expanding its dominion over them. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was so feared that the American people could even be told they would be “better dead than Red”, the US rejoiced in the belief that the world was at last under its uncontested leadership, celebrating Francis Fukuyama’s then acclaimed book The End of History, and proclaiming, perhaps even believing, that it alone can assure peace, stability and prosperity in the international system

This book debunks, among others, the myth of the universality of US values and the myth of the imperial, dictatorial and state capitalist character of today’s China. It explains the division between the US and China through an analysis of their ideologies going back to the foundation of the US Republic and the time of the Chinese Empire.

China’s significant military and economic advances are addressed, along with its new investments and One Belt, One Road Initiative.