במשך עשרות שנים, סין פעלה לפי כלל פשוט: הסתר את עוצמתך, המתן לשעת כושר.
אבל מאז שעלה לשלטון, שי ג'ין-פינג שבר את כללי המשחק – בייג'ינג קידמה בקול רם השקפת עולם חדשה הטוענת שהמזרח עולה בעוד שהמערב יורד.
מטרתו של שי הייתה לעבור מן השוליים אל מושב הנהג בממשל העולמי.
במילים פשוטות, הוא רצה שסין תתמודד ישירות מול ארה"ב ותכתוב מחדש את כללי הסדר העולמי.
אך ככל שאנו מתקדמים ברבעון הראשון של 2026, חזון זה עומד בפני מבחן מציאות חריף - שתיים מבעלות הברית האסטרטגיות החשובות ביותר של סין, משטרו של מדורו בוונצואלה ומשטרו של חמינאי באיראן התערערו אחד אחרי השני.
אז כיצד פירקו המהלכים של ממשל טראמפ בדרום אמריקה ובמזרח התיכון את האג'נדה העולמית של שי ג'ין-פינג?
עיתונאית NTD ארלין ריצ'ארדס בוחנת מקרוב: תמונה: Madalina Kilroy / The Epoch Times
For decades, China played by a simple rule, hide your strength, bide your time.
But since taking power, Xi Jinping has ripped up that playbook.
Beijing has been loudly promoting a new worldview, claiming the East is rising while the West
is declining.
Xi's goal has been to shift from the sidelines into the driver's seat of global governance.
Put simply, he wants China to go toe-to-toe with the U.S. and rewrite the rules of the
global order.
But as we move through the first quarter of 2026, that vision is facing a massive reality
check.
Two of China's closest strategic allies, the Maduro regime in Venezuela and Khamenei's
Iranian regime, are reeling from back-to-back crises.
So how have the Trump administration's moves in South America and the Middle East been
dismantling Xi Jinping's global agenda?
We take a closer look.
We're also restoring American security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
When U.S. forces captured Nicolas Maduro in a matter of hours, Beijing, his highest-level
strategic partner, could do little more than issue a verbal protest.
No military intervention, no rescue.
Instead, the world got a front-row seat to the gap between China's global rhetoric and
its actual hard power.
Here's what we've gathered.
Just hours before his capture, a high-level Chinese delegation met with Maduro.
They weren't just blindsided, they were trapped in the chaos for days.
A fact the Chinese foreign ministry later awkwardly confirmed.
Venezuela's defense systems, proudly made in China, proved useless.
The sophisticated J-127A anti-stealth radar and long-range surveillance systems?
They didn't stand a chance against U.S. technology, sparking debate over whether Chinese military
hardware is truly battle-ready.
Venezuela's transitional government is already pivoting toward the U.S., signing a major
energy deal with the Trump administration.
This leaves Beijing's decades of loans-for-oil deals, an elaborate scheme to bypass sanctions
and secure a discount at crude, dead in the water.
And tens of billions of dollars in Chinese investment could be wiped out overnight.
So basically, the download doctrine itself is to secure America's backyard.
Basically the backyard is the American continent.
And the download doctrine's purpose is to make the United States ready to support the
front line, and the Western front line is the Western Pacific.
So that's what it is.
Once the American continent, or as the American's backyard, is fully ready, American build a
very strong backyard, American will be able to face the challenge from the Chinese Communist
Party in the Western Pacific.
From South America to the heart of the Middle East, the collapse of Beijing's alliance network
continues.
A joint U.S.-Israeli strike decapitated Iran's leadership, taking out its regime leader Ali
Khamenei and more than 40 members of his inner circle.
For China, it's a masterclass in authoritarian solidarity.
A friendship with plenty of rhetoric, but no backup when the missiles start flying.
Here's the fallout.
Despite years of talking about a strategic partnership, Beijing has not offered Tehran
any formal defense commitment.
While Iran's foreign minister touted close military cooperation, Beijing largely stayed
on the sidelines as the pressure mounted.
China and Iran signed a 25-year economic pact in 2021.
But due to the recent Iran war, it's been effectively paralyzed.
With the Strait of Hormuz under blockade, China's primary energy lifeline is severely
impacted.
The country buys over 90% of Iran's oil exports, or roughly 13% of China's total annual supply.
That's a serious hit to Beijing's energy security.
Ultimately, Khamenei's death isn't just a blow to Iran, it was a disaster for Xi Jinping.
For years, China used Iran as a strategic counterweight to tie down U.S. forces in the
Middle East.
Now that entire anti-American front has crumbled, leaving Beijing's Middle East strategy in
ruins.
In order to deter the threat from the CCP in the Western Pacific, he needs to have a
very secure backyard.
He needs to keep the Western Hemisphere safe.
Now, Venezuela has been a long-term ally of the CCP.
Iran, basically, is a part of the evil axis led by China and Russia on the Euro-Asian
continent.
Now, in order to weaken the communist regime in China, weaken the newly-raised continental
power led by China and Russia, taking down the Iranian regime is one of the very small
and actually excellent steps to accomplish the goal.
This isn't just a series of isolated moves.
It's the execution of a new national security strategy.
The Trump administration made one thing clear.
America's backyard and domestic security are now the top priorities.
Washington is pushing back against Beijing's Western decline narrative and vowing a resurgence
of Western power, signaling a shift from retreat to a global counteroffensive.
Our predecessors recognized that decline was a choice, and it was a choice they refused
to make.
This is what we did together once before, and this is what President Trump and the United
States want to do again now.
For we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's
managed decline.
In this new global chess game, the Indo-Pacific is the most important region outside the U.S.,
but dealing with the China challenge is a top priority.
A big part of that is maintaining a clear military edge in the Taiwan Strait to deter
Beijing from ever attacking Taiwan.
The U.S. wants to make sure any move by China would be way too risky and costly, a strategy
rooted in peace through strength.
And as the dust settles in Venezuela and Iran, the message to Xi Jinping is unmistakable.
The era of American retreat is over.