The illusion of multipolarity: when totalitarianism dreams of a world of equals. Let's try to enter history with open eyes

The intrinsic contradiction and deception behind the profound rhetoric of Chinese totalitarianism.

80 years ago, the agreement of the secret room of the Big Three: the world order born in Yalta out of the misery and destruction of World War II is no longer universally accepted by China and Russia. Today, these states reveal the true face of the paradox of power: how the hegemony of these totalitarian and authoritarian regimes shatters the Yalta dream of multipolarity.

The historical legacy of the 1945 Yalta Conference and its continuing relevance in the current geopolitical landscape. While the Yalta agreements established a postwar world order aimed at peace and stability—symbolized by the creation of the United Nations and the balance of nuclear deterrence—this model is no longer universally accepted. A fundamental paradox is dangerously emerging: totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, particularly China and Russia, are using the rhetoric of a "multipolar world" to challenge what they perceive as Western hegemony. However, their true goal is not to create a world of equals, but rather to expand their power and influence, threatening the values ​​and institutions of the existing democratic order. Yet, this "love in disguise" represents a strategic failure on the part of Western democracies, which for decades naively believed that economic engagement would lead to political liberalization in China. As nationalism and great-power competition intensify, humanity could forget the historical lessons of the past, jeopardizing the peace forged at such a high cost.

by Gabriele and Nicola Iuvinale

A fake love?

In February 1945 in Yalta, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, it was bitterly cold.

There, in thePalace of Livadia, a possession of the last Tsar of Russia, its doors silently opened to welcome three figures powerful enough to shake the world: Roosevelt in a wheelchair, Churchill with high fever and Stalin with a stern expression.

The end of the war was near, but the game of peace had just begun.

The negotiating table on the ruins

At the beginning of 1945, the smoke of war still hung over the battlefields of Europe.

The Soviet Red Army had advanced to the Oder River, just 70 kilometers from Berlin, while British and American Allied forces were approaching the German border from the Western Front.

But Roosevelt knew that military victory did not equate to political victory. He sailed for 11 days despite illness and insisted on traveling to Yalta in person, simply to take control before the postwar situation solidified.

There were four topics on the conference table: the fate of Germany, the reconstruction of Poland, the war against Japan and the concept of the United Nations.

But there were undercurrents stirring beneath the surface: Stalin wanted a buffer zone in the Europe Eastern and the access to the Far East East Roosevelt hoped that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan, and Churchill sought to preserve the glory of the dissolving British Empire.

The secret agreement "Under the rose"

On the ceiling of a study in the Livadia Palace is carved with a rose-shaped motif, an ancient European symbol, meaning "all words here are to be kept confidential.""

"To the Rose by the Cross, to the Cross by the Rose".

It was here that Roosevelt and Stalin reached an agreement on the Far East without the participation of China.

Without China …. 

The United States recognized the Soviet Union's acquisition of the southern island of Sakhalin and the islands Kuriles, recognized the rights of the Soviet Union on the ChinaNortheast and the independence of the Mongolia from Beijing, in exchange for the Soviet Union declaring war on Japan within three months of Germany's surrender.

Chiang Kai-shek became aware of the Yalta agreement just three months later.

Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong were the main opposing leaders in the Chinese Civil War, the first one at the head of the Kuomintang (nationalists) and the second of the communists.

Their rivalry began with the persecution of the nationalists against the communists in 1927, and was interrupted to fight Japan during World War II, and resumed after the war, culminating in 1949 with Mao's victory and the founding of the People's Republic of China, while Chiang took refuge in Taiwan.

Subsequently, in 1971, the United Nations recognized the People's Republic of China (founded by the Communists) as the sole representative of China, and Taiwan, where Chiang's government, which until then had had international recognition, was located, lost its seat in the UN.

Berlin: symbol of victory and division

As the cheers of Yalta faded, the Eastern Front had already entered its final bloody battle. 2.5 million Soviet soldiers, 40,000 artillery pieces and over 6,000 tanks descended upon Berlin.

The fall of this city marked both the end of the Nazism be the prologue of the Cold War.

In reality the German surrender ceremony took place twice: Stalin refused to recognize the signed version of Reims and insisted on repeating it to Berlin.

The United States and the Soviet Union exchanged two provinces for an enclave in Berlin: the fate of the division had already been decided in the carnival of victory.

The Atomic Bomb and the End of the War in the East

At the Conference of Potsdam, Truman received a secret telegram about the successful test of the atomic bomb. He casually mentioned "a new type of superweapon" to Stalin, who nodded blankly: the Soviet Union already knew everything through his intelligence network.

At the same time as the Potsdam Declaration, atomic bombs were already being loaded onto bombers at Tinian. Under the mushroom clouds above Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hundreds of thousands of people died instantly.

On August 8, three days after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, in accordance with the Yalta Agreement.

With the cooperation of the Northeast United Anti-Japanese Army and Soviet troops deployed in northeastern China, several major Japanese-occupied cities in northeastern China were successively captured. On August 30, 1945, the last group of Japanese troops, approximately 900 men, surrendered, marking the end of the "final battle" of World War II in northeastern China.

The historical folds behind the victory

Eighty years have passed, the rose engravings at Yalta have long faded, and the Führerbunker has been filled in and turned into a parking lot, but that history of domination has never truly disappeared: the veto power of the United Nations Security Council, the fragile peace under nuclear deterrence, the eternal interplay between sovereignty and power... it all stemmed from that winter that determined how the world would be rebuilt.

From Yalta to San Francisco, from Berlin to Hiroshima, humanity has built, with unprecedented courage and wisdom, a new international order on the ruins of war. For 80 years, we have safeguarded this peace, achieved at the cost of tens of millions of lives.

That secret "Under the Rose" agreement without China. A love in disguise? The antinomy between totalitarianism and global order

Today, the People's Republic of China officially declares ambitions and coercive policies that challenge and undermine our interests, security, and values. Beijing deploys a vast arsenal of political, economic, and military tools aimed at rapidly increasing its global presence and power projection, while remaining completely opaque regarding its strategy, intentions, and exponential strengthening of its military arsenal.

The Chinese Communist Party does not explicitly export its model of Marxism-Leninism but instead markets elements of the system “Party-State” of Xi Jinping and his concept of governance as an alternative to Western conceptions of political and economic organization.

The Party’s refusal to disown Russia and Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine is perfectly consistent with this idea.

Monopoly or multipolarity? The great contradiction of Xi Jinping's China

Since he came to power more than a decade ago, Xi Jinping has proven himself a master of authoritarian politics. He has successfully consolidated his personal authority and waged a campaign to reinvigorate the party's ideology and its presence in Chinese society. Xi has formulated a maximalist vision of national security focused on protecting the regime and the CCP and has linked unification with Taiwan with China's path to national rejuvenation.

The many dangerous critical issues of the Chinese model – as it has taken shape under President-for-Life Xi Jinping and his declared goals of world leadership – pose significant risks to Western democracies and to their political, economic, and social stability.

Xi Jinping's real goals are constantly ignored by much of the global media as are the attacks that China is currently making on the world order, on the very values ​​of all democratic constitutions and of the United Nations Organization.

Clash of visions: a new multipolar world cannot be born from a totalitarian regime

For decades, liberal democracies deluded themselves that China's modernization would also bring about its democratization.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union, the US foreign policy establishment – ​​and not only – nurtured this certainty within a broader foreign policy of 'export' of freedoms and democracy.

Even the much vaunted victory in the Cold War turned into a pure illusion.

A love in disguise? The antinomy between totalitarianism and global order.

Two powerful states, like China and Russia, believed that the time had come to push against a West weakened and confused. There was a dream that economic liberalization in the world's most populous country, China, would automatically entail political freedom for its citizens. People were convinced that the West's diplomatic engagement and Beijing's integration into the international economy, with its entry into the World Trade Organization, would have mitigated the authoritarianism of the Chinese Communist Party.

China, on the other hand, deliberately exploited this opening, failing to embrace the values ​​that underpinned it. At the time, it seemed like the right decision, but now it has become a strategic mistake.

Serious mistakes have been made, fueled by a failure to evaluate the conduct and intentions of the Chinese Communist Party and by a short-sighted and often corrupt mercantilism, which has chosen to put its own interests before the general security interests of states.

The goal of minimizing friction between international economies is the basis of many post-World War II rules and institutions. This democratic governance is now constantly threatened by China, Russia, Iran and from other countries, all united by an anti-Western and revanchist sentiment.

Ad Rosam per Crucem, ad Crucem per Rosam

As we stand at a new crossroads in history, we must ask ourselves: as nationalism resurfaces, as great-power competition intensifies, and as peace is taken for granted, are we forgetting the lessons of history? Can we truly realize the noble ideal enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations: "save future generations from the scourge of war"?

The best way to commemorate those who gave their lives for peace is not with words, but with deeds, because peace has never been an inevitability of history, but a precious gift that each generation must work hard to preserve.