1/6 Isolate China! Build a broad alliance of democracies! So where to start? Five Eyes, of course: US, UK, Australia, Canada and NZ. Anglo-Saxons together. Four former settler colonies. English their mother tongue. This is not a statement of strength but an admission of weakness.

2/6 The axis of the West used to be the US and Europe. What has become of Europe? The new EU-China Investment Treaty suggests Europe is not in the business of ganging up on China. Merkel understands the world (and China) better than the Anglo-Saxon crusaders who prefer the past.

3/6 The global economy, once western-centric, is now Asian-centric. Merkel, like many others, knows that. That is why Europe is increasingly looking east. Without most of Europe, what is this new anti-China alliance: it is no more than a pale shadow of what the West used to be.

4/6 Despairing of Europe, the Anglo-Saxonites talk about recruiting Japan, South Korea and India. Who are they kidding? Japan is part of Belt and Road and the huge new RCEP trading bloc. So is South Korea. China is their bread and butter. Too important to cold shoulder

5/6 The truth is that the Anglo-Saxonites are desperately trying to hold on to the past. They denounce China as if it was the USSR. They don't understand it; they don't even try to. They just want to carry on running the world.

6/6 The West is in economic decline, politically and intellectually ossified. Their anti-China crusade is a lost cause. Time for new thinking. Once we were good at it. The West must embrace the world as it is becoming not as it was. Otherwise it will only hasten its own decline.