Long ago, as students, we read Shelley’s poem ‘Ozymandias’ in which the boast of the protagonist lay buried in the sands and it said, ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings, look on my works, ye mighty and despair’. These words probably came to the mind of those who witnessed the great oration of the President of the United States (POTUS). But right at that time, China released an AI tool DeepSeek which leapfrogged over the tech giants of the USA. The stock market crashed, and the west lost about one trillion dollars in one day.

The timing of the release of the AI tool by China is ironic. It sent a harsh message to the USA that the sanctions imposed on them were ineffectual. Sweet are the uses of adversity, says a character in Shakespeare. True to that, sanctions on China forced it to work hard and innovate. It gave a blow to the great claims being made by the tech billionaires of the west. This tool was developed at about one hundredth of the money spent by the western companies and it was awkward for the western companies to explain the billions spent by them.

Analysts started predicting a great change in US-China relations and in world geopolitics in general. In spite of all attempts to contain China, it is said to claim 45% of global industrial production in a few more years.

China can be seen following the strategies of Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’ on all fronts in its battle with the west. Stealth, deception, infiltration and attack are not only adopted in war but in all fields such as trade, technology, diplomacy, social manipulation and so on. The crouching dragon is present in all fields. China took advantage of the totalitarian system and pushed forth capitalist goals. The once disillusioned Chinese youth now seemed filled with national pride.

The German communists took socialist ideology to the USA and established roots in the universities. Slowly the social philosophy which allowed decadence in several fields. We may reasonably infer that the communist countries had a role in encouraging such social manipulation. West, particularly in recent years, started adopting strange ideas such as multiplicity of genders, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), apparently laudable goals which were vigorously pursued and carried to the extremes by the left liberals. There were unaccounted contributions to western universities, corrupting their work ethic. While the students in Ivy league universities were busy in encampments crying for justice in Gaza, no such protests were found in China which quietly focused on its work. The ills which are normally expected in a socialist system were transported to western societies. The left-liberal doctrine became the mainstream philosophy. It impeded innovation as merit was ignored.

Stealth and deceit are unethical in social interactions, but they are prescribed while dealing with a hostile country. Apart from Kautilya’s text we have a more focused treatise on statecraft, Kamandaka Niti Sara, a book profusely quoted in Sanskrit commentaries on old texts like the Ramayana. Unfortunately, we refused to know our texts and missed the great teachings. This book is more comprehensive and ancient than Sun Tzu, but we never learnt from our classics but became subjects for manipulation by others.

Gloating over the Indian knowledge systems (IKS) of old may have the limited use of correcting history and to infuse a sense of self-respect, but we have to know our strength in the present. Our attention seems to be focused on the past, to discover or superimpose the present innovations on old texts, and not much on the present. Social media is brimming with self-congratulatory posts, with little awareness of the present dangers. Certainly, our texts have not given such a message to society. We seem to be praising our texts, without reading and taking lessons from them. China has internalized Sun Tzu, but we have not internalized Kautilya or Kamandaka. This should be our Ozymandias moment too.

(The writer is a formerD GP, Andhra Pradesh)