“….can’t I infer that the author thinks Germany is the good guys?”
Yes, but only to the extent that Germany is part of the Western world, which it is.
Here it is in the author’s own words:
“While the winner among these groups isn’t clear, the loser is coming into focus: Ordinary people across the Western world.“
So, on a global level, there is the West vs the East, and the author is calling the West “the good guys”.
Of course, if you focus only on the West, there are good guys and bad guys too, and it’s fair to say Germany has been one of the bad guys. But to do so is to completely miss the author’s point about global East/West power shifts.
I got his point. It was very strained. The West is full of maggots who would like nothing better than a Sino-centric world and most of Asia hates China.
Treating either as monolithic is silly.
Anyway. Nice talking to you.