在资本主义西方，"民族"的概念建立在民族国家的观念之上。土地及其政府隶属于这一民族国家，并以此为基础加以界定。民族国家由人民依据其所认可的边界来界定。在西方思想中，人民可以依据单一或多重因素来界定，例如地理、历史、种族和语言传统。按照他们的观点，这些因素构成了人民独特的集体认同。因此，人民如同一个整体行动，并享有民族自决的权利。他们可以选择生活在一个主权国家之中，独立于其他人民之外。

The nation in the capitalist West is based on the notion of the nation state. The land and its government belong to this nation state and are defined upon its basis. It is the people who define the nation state, based on their accepted borders. The people can be defined in the Western thought based on single or multiple factors, such as geography, history, race and linguistic heritage. These are the factors that make a distinctive, collective identity for the people, according to their view. So the people act as one body and they have a right to self-determination. They can choose to live in a sovereign state, independent of other people.

在所有情况下,西方都将人视为具有固定的领土边界。这意味着民族国家的边界应当永远保持固定,并在其本国人民的最大可用范围内。民族国家没有任何合法依据可以越出其既定边界进行扩张。西方人说,固定边界是避免战争的最佳方式。然而,除了物质利益之外,这还是一种控制个人和社会的手段。而且,与他们的说法相反,民族国家反而加剧了帝国殖民扩张的需要。欧洲新兴的民族国家发现自己无法进行区域性的土地扩张,于是转向殖民扩张。殖民扩张正是以此方式出现的,其特征是资本主义意识形态借以自我传播的一种方法。殖民帝国主义在西方崛起期间一直存在,或公开或隐秘。直到今天它依然存在。事实上,殖民主义如今所采取的形式,或许比西方历史上任何以往的时代都更加极端、更加无处不在。

In all cases, the West views people as having fixed, territorial boundaries. The meaning of this is that the borders of a nation state are supposed to remain fixed forever, within a maximum availability for its own people. There is no legitimate basis for a nation state to expand beyond its determined borders. Westerners say that fixed borders are the best way to avoid war. However, this is in addition to the material benefit, as a measure for controlling individuals and society. Moreover, contrary to their claim, the nation state led to exacerbating the need for imperial colonialist expansion. The emerging nations in Europe found themselves incapable of regional land expansion and so they turned to colonialist expansion. This was how the colonialist expansion emerged in its characteristic of being a method of the capitalist ideology to spread itself. Colonialist imperialism persisted during the rise of the West, whether openly or covertly. It is present even now. Indeed, perhaps colonialism has now reached more extreme and more pervasive forms, than any previous era of the Western history.

因此，西方实行了殖民扩张。在过去两个世纪里，它殖民并奴役了世界上几乎所有的民族。西方殖民者的贪婪不仅应受谴责，而且与他们对物质利益的认知是一致的。如果一个人为了满足物质需求和欲望而周游世界，那么在国家层面，这就转化为物质利益和民族利益。

Thus, the West has exercised colonialist expansion. It has colonialized and enslaved almost all the nations of the world, within the last two centuries. The Western colonialist greed is not merely reprehensible; it is consistent with their perception of material benefit. If an individual is to roam the world for his material needs and desires, then this is translated, at the state level, into material and national interests.

西方国家起初动用武力进入每一个非欧洲大陆并加以控制。西方大多采取一种具体的做法：正式地将土地殖民化，同时消灭既有的统治体系。随后，西方人组建或改组政治精英，以培养一个亲西方的统治阶层，使其致力于在其土地上推行西方的制度。

The Western nations utilized military force initially to enter every non-European continent and control it. The West had mostly taken the specific approach of colonializing the land formally, whilst eradicating existing ruling systems. The Westerners then formed or reformed the political elites in order to build a pro-Western ruling class, that is committed to implementing Western systems in their lands.

帝国主义在殖民主义正式结束之后依然存在，表现为被殖民国家在形式上获得了独立。实际上发生的，只是公开、正式的殖民统治转变为一种隐蔽的奴役形式，由西方列强实施，并使这些民族遭受更为严重的奴役。西方借助一套复杂的殖民主义经济秩序，得以大规模地攫取全球的资源与财富。这种资本主义秩序迫使殖民地，即较弱的国家，以极不公正的低廉价格输出其大部分资源和劳动力。而被殖民的国家则又以昂贵的价格进口西方的服务与成品，其代价之高甚至近乎敲诈勒索。

Imperialism had remained present, even after the official end of colonialism, through formal independence of colonialized nations. What really happened was simply a transition of explicit, official colonialism into a disguised form of enslavement, by the Western powers, which unleashed even greater enslavement of those people. On a massive scale, the West has been able to exploit the global resources and wealth, through a complex, colonialist economic order. This capitalist order forces the colonies, i.e. weaker nations, to export the greater portion of their resources and work forces at unjustly low costs. The colonialized nations then import Western services and ready-made goods at expensive prices, to the point of extortion.

至于西方在国际上为传播自由与民主理念而实施的"软性"运动,实际上从属于其殖民主义方法。事实上,它只是这一方法的一部分,是促成殖民的工具,同时掩盖了其真实面目。

As for the soft campaigns implemented by the West internationally to spread the ideals of freedom and democracy, it is in fact secondary to its colonialist method. In fact, it is only a part of this method and a tool to facilitate it, whilst masking its reality.