War & Peace Quote by Li Peng

“Hegemonism” is the kind of word that pretends to be a neutral political diagnosis while functioning as a weaponized accusation. In Li Peng’s mouth, it’s a tidy way to point at the United States without having to say “America,” and to wrap China’s interests in the language of global principle. After the Cold War, the argument goes, the world was supposed to graduate from bloc politics into a rules-based peace. Instead, one superpower kept the steering wheel. Calling that “increasingly unpopular” reads less like an observation than a bid to certify a new common sense: that unipolar dominance is not just strategically risky, but socially illegitimate.

The phrasing is doing careful diplomatic work. “Since the end of the Cold War” sets an implied benchmark: we tried your model when you were the lone winner; look at the outcomes. “Increasingly” suggests history has momentum, that resistance is building and therefore inevitable. And “unpopular” is a sly choice: it shifts the debate from legality to legitimacy, from treaties and borders to vibes and consent. If the hegemon is unpopular, then pushback starts to look like democracy rather than disruption.

Li Peng’s context matters. As a Chinese public servant shaped by the post-1989 legitimacy crisis and the 1990s lesson of U.S.-led interventionism, he’s advancing a narrative where China isn’t the next empire; it’s the spokesperson for multipolar dignity. The subtext is an invitation and a warning: join the chorus against dominance, or be counted among its enablers.