By Jesse Wilson, Strategic Coordinator, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Sierra Leone

The Roman empire comprehended a vast portion of the enlightened domains of the world, and the vastitude and preeminence of her civilization was second to none. Rome cultured the world and the uniqueness it brought to nations has helped advanced their own civilization. But the Empire was also known for its stringent laws that made the Tiberius river foam of human blood, suppression of dissidents, belligerence, hate and brutality against other peoples of near and distant lands. Imperialism strives under the dominance of other nations—and Rome was the godfather—constantly weakening the others to achieve its goals. She forbids anyone else to rise above her greatness. To be as great as she is or even greater is a defeat Rome would have never accepted.

Rome, for centuries, strived under this method: to make people fear her, to keep all nations beneath her heels, never to allow them to rise or even foster the imagination that they will someday become as equal to her refinement. The Romans believed that their civilization is the greatest, and those who were not Roman citizens were of the others—the ‘barbarus’ as they were called in Latin, or in simple English the ‘barbarian’ tribes of the crudest and isolated parts of the world. Anything that is not from Rome or built by Roman might is considered of little worth. The vineyards grown only on Roman soil were incomparable to other nations’ red earth. Roman wine was tastier and the others tasteless. So, for centuries they prided themselves in such a way as to teach all men that the only way to become gods rather than mere men is to put on the Roman skin and never caste it off. But pride, along the centuries of Rome’s existence, made them to be the most respected, yet despised, military force by the nations she had subdued and conquered with her golden eagle scepter; and eventually ‘pride’ had brought them to their everlasting collapse, and scorned by the nations she had trampled upon.

The Roman Republic has been dead and gone for over a thousand years, and its people scattered across the globe, oblivious of who they are and their origins. The world changes. Power has no friend. It belongs to those who feed it, and leave those who can’t control it. If Rome, a thousand years ago, would had seen into the future that their civilization would become nothing but myths and legends, and their former slaves and vassal states that paid tributes to them were to become their masters, then Rome would’ve fought tooth and nail to change the future just for them to remain the greatest nation on earth. What they never knew is that the future is always unpredictable. After its invasion by no other than the savage tribes of Germany, eager to put an end to centuries of oppression and tyranny, mighty Rome fell and never rose from its ashes.

A perfect example of a nation that was so hated that their mortal enemy had their entire land covered in salt—to make everything die with it. ‘Carthago delenda est’ or ‘Carthage must be destroyed’ was what Cato, a Roman Senator, always said when ending his speech in the senate. When he had visited the flourishing and highly civilized North African nation, ‘the richest city in the world,’ Polybius called it, extravagance and wonders he beheld, but the flames of envy grew even more that Cato had to convince the Roman senate that Carthage’s existence alone posed a threat to Rome’s expansion to other realms. It was unacceptable for Rome to have her equal. Carthage eventually fell after three successive battles called the ‘Punic’ wars, and its people enslaved and scattered all over the earth. Rome could’ve helped Carthage to be as great as she was but its primary intention was to have no rival and utterly extinguish the country—forever.

Rome had succeeded in destroying a nation that could had ascended above other civilizations and would had become the conqueror and not the conquered. To forbid the rise of any progressive nation is the chief intent of the imperial state. None should rise to the heavens but them.

Today, in the modern world, Rome is forever buried beneath antiquity, but its bloodline was never cut off.

The new Romans or rather the new Caesars, are the powers-that-be, sitting in plush offices, commanding nations to go to war, bringing down empires and dividing countries, they control the monetary system and all that comprises of it. They run the world within tightly closed doors and whisper behind iron curtains. You can’t see them but they can see you and all others that breathe the air of life.

We see that in our catastrophic world we are still being troubled by those who wish for us to ever fall beneath their heels and to never rise to the glory of the sun; to prosper and to progress, as they are doing, without being encumbered by their hegemonic ‘social’ and ‘economic’ models sold to the world by overzealous and dishonest capitalists and, of course, the often mendacious, cunning, and hypocritical Western media; their so-called democracy appears a miscreation, a chimera that puts everything it comes in contact with in disarray, hardly it seems to be borne from the true power of the people as the term is faithful to.

It is the subject of a nation that has existed for thousands of years and has made great contributions to world civilization. A superpower and steadily rising, not only the second largest and fastest growing economy in the world but soon to take over the global economy to become the earth’s number 1 center for conducive business. Apart from the infrastructural excellence, China has become the world’s leader in technological innovations, quantum computing and artificial intelligence; having recently seen their EV industry skyrocketed to defeat even Elon Musk’s Tesla, on demand. We should look to china’s economic reform, its brilliant strategy of its state-owned enterprises and financial sector to give those who seek to reform their own economic establishment. For 14 consecutive years it has been the world’s leading manufacturing hub of virtually everything, and you will find virtually everything in China. It’s economy growing at 4.6 % a year and makes about 29% of the total global output, a 10% lead on the United States.

From Mao Zedong’s ‘great leap forward’, that had transformed an agrarian nation to a superpower and economic might, to Xi Jinping’s ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy which has made the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) a possibility, with over a trillion dollars financed from China’s reserve; financing prestigious infrastructures, building high-quality roads and railroads that cut through Asia, Eurasia and Europe. A feat never taken before by any other nation.

But of course, as it has always been in history, there would always be a form of envy insinuated in the hearts of men, and detractors will seek out the obstruction and ruin of one’s advancement. And China is paying dearly for the price of her prosperity and expansion.

We see it when her technological innovations are being sanctioned by the United States and other Western countries, absurdly calling it a ‘threat to their national security’; passing and signing bills in Congress to ban TikTok and the restriction of sales of smartphone chips. In return Huawei Technologies, a Chinese mobile company, responded by creating a new smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, that carries its own processor—made in China, and a self-developed operating system, the Harmony OS and the Harmony OS NEXT. A landmark achievement that could even challenge Apple’s dominance in the computer industry. The ‘Xiahong’ is a 504-qubit quantum computing chip that has already changed the speed of the average computer system, spearheaded by the Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). ‘We always beat expectations’, the people say, ‘the future is China.’ To get the latest state-of-the-art technology you can’t find it nowhere else—China delivers it to the world. You’ll certainly find the future in China.

And when it comes to military provocation we have never seen such unconventional manners of warfare; America’s presence in the South China Sea, a confrontation that is drawing closer to war each day. Seeking to divide and conquer as it always does, with a record breaking of over 200 wars and invasions with trails of blood left since it’s year of independence in 1776, with little or nothing achieved from them. To keep Chinese influence at bay is the Wests’ paramount goal and they will go to the extreme to hamper any road map to the unification of an island that has always been part of mainland China. Taiwan is a unique case of America’s divide and conquer strategy. But will it work? The people of Taiwan are Chinese by blood and feature and millions see themselves connected to the Motherland, as Chinese first and not an ethnicity or tribe. It is not difficult to understand the true history of the China-Taiwan struggle even though one is overwhelmed by countless false narratives written in Western books. It has always been case of the defeated and disgraced Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist Army running away from the PRC when they had lost the Chinese Civil War. The United States decided to add more fuel to the fire in support of the rebels in creating their own country; keeping Communist China at arm’s length from reclaiming their territory and putting an end to Kai-shek’s rebellion. The situation grew to what it is now. Though a wider conflict, it will soon see the unbreakable union of Taiwan, once again, with her brothers and sisters in China.

The dragon is an unusual kind of animal, like no other. Ancient as time itself. Some say the strange creature only exists in myths and legends, a mere creation of man’s phantasm. But in all cultures of the world the dragon is depicted fairly the same: a gigantic serpent-like, fire-breathing beast with wings, a crested head and steel-like teeth and claws, and a scale stronger and sharper than diamond blades. In China, it is known as the loong, and the symbol is often associated with prosperity and good health. The dragon has influenced Chinese culture for millennia. A symbol of imperial power, the emperors often wear silk robes with beautifully embroidered dragon motifs on them, and their palaces, seats and other royal paraphernalia decorated or intricately carved out in its image. The Chinese believe that they are ‘descendants of the dragon’. On the last string of hope, against their enemies, they harness the dragon’s power and move with lightning and thunder; with fierce determination they destroy all that impedes their way. Nothing can stand before the dragon—nothing can stand before them.