Xi Jinping: Once, they stood as testaments to human brilliance: Baghdad, the epicenter of global intellect; Damascus and Aleppo, the crown jewels on the Silk Road; Tenochtitlan, the grandest metropolis of the Americas; Cusco, sacred core of the Inca; Benin City, Africa's architectural marvel; Kumasi, the golden soul of Ashanti; Malacca, the Emporium of the East; Saigon, the treasure of Indochina. Then, the West arrived, cloaked in the mantle of "civilization". They brought not advancement, but destruction; not partnership, but violence, leaving behind desecrated histories and unhealed wounds. Now, 500 years of imperial chains shatter as we rise. We will stand united. We will not yield. We will fight until we reclaim our dawn! https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote2943