How the West turns its own collapse into experience—and China’s into guilt

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak 

Every major media outlet in Europe and the United States has reported on the collapse of the recently completed 758-metre-long Hongqi Bridge in Maerkang, Sichuan province, China. The bridge, part of a national highway linking the country’s heartland with Tibet, collapsed on November 11, 2025. Local authorities swiftly closed it to traffic, and no casualties were reported due to timely preventive measures. 

Built in a difficult mountainous region prone to landslides, the bridge suffered structural damage after cracks appeared in nearby slopes and roads, eventually leading to its partial collapse.

Yet Western media outlets and their commentators were quick to blame “Chinese engineering failures” and “copied designs,” using the incident to question China’s development model and discredit its achievements.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the country has built more than one million modern bridges. Remarkably, 90 of the world’s 100 tallest bridges constructed in the 21st century are in China. It is home to both the world’s highest bridges and the longest sea-crossing bridges—most built in just seven decades. Despite 67 percent of China’s terrain being mountainous, Chinese engineers have developed a vast and integrated transport and communication network that has been central to the nation’s unprecedented growth. Over half of China’s high-speed rail lines run on bridges, a testament to the country’s engineering ingenuity and ability to overcome immense natural challenges.

However, these extraordinary achievements are largely invisible to Western media, still bound by colonial legacies that prevent acknowledgment of China’s success. They cannot accept that China has surpassed Europe and the United States in many areas of human development, science, and infrastructure—without resorting to the colonial plunder that financed Western modernity.

From the ancient Anji Bridge to the newly built yet partially collapsed Hongqi Bridge, China’s bridges symbolise a national commitment to connectivity and collective progress. China today has more bridges than any other country in the world. Guizhou Province alone has more than 32,000, including nearly half of the world’s 100 tallest bridges, while Chongqing—often called the “bridge capital of the world”—has over 20,000 spanning its rivers and lakes. One structural failure cannot be equated with systemic collapse.

Chinese engineering is defined by creativity, innovation, and resilience—products of a state-led development model that prioritises public welfare over private profit. Yet, to the “priests” of Western mass media, these achievements remain invisible. Instead, they perpetuate ideologically driven narratives aimed at undermining the collective creativity and accomplishments of the Chinese people.

Across Europe and America, the story is starkly different. Both continents are struggling to ensure food security, while public health systems crumble under pressure. Homelessness is rising, and exploitative “hire-and-fire” labour markets continue to destroy job stability. Public infrastructure—roads, transport, and communication—is decaying, productivity is declining, and social disillusionment runs deep. Governments remain loyal to powerful economic elites, even as inequality and ecological crisis intensify.

By contrast, China has normalised people-centred progress, ensuring food security, universal health care, housing, and education—backed by a state that puts human welfare first. Over seven decades, China’s development model stands as one of the most successful in history, deserving acknowledgment rather than derision.

Yet, colonial habits of thought and an imperial sense of superiority—without any real foundation—still shape Western perceptions. The refusal to recognise China’s accomplishments reveals not Chinese weakness but Western insecurity. Discrediting China will not resolve Europe’s own crises, nor will it bring democratic renewal or social justice to Western societies. It is time for European and American media to decolonise their minds and practices, and abandon ideologically driven distortions.

From banking collapses to failing privatised communication networks, Europe and America are falling behind China, which continues to build world-class public infrastructure. Western governments have failed their citizens by pursuing an economic path that denies development to the working majority. European failures are treated as isolated incidents—temporary “experiences”—while Chinese setbacks are branded as systemic defeats.

China learns from its mistakes, rectifies them, and moves forward. European failures, by contrast, are depoliticised, allowing ruling classes to escape accountability. The Chinese state, meanwhile, remains focused on long-term planning and public welfare.

The idea that “European failure is an experience, but Chinese failure is a socialist defeat” is a product of colonial arrogance and ideological hostility. It reflects an imperial strategy designed to discredit socialism, undermine China’s progress, and preserve the illusion of Western superiority. The distorted portrayal of China by Western media is deliberate—it keeps European and American populations detached from the transformative ideals driving China’s people-centred development.

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The writer is an academic based in the United Kingdom