On Dec 9-10, the United States staged a political farce that twisted democratic values and divided the world by cobbling together a so-called Summit for Democracy. Some countries turned down the invitation; some just sent low-level delegates; some were enticed or forced to take their part; and some “clowns” made a show for a publicity stunt.
The US “summit” was awash with platitudes of hegemony and double standards. Even American people put up banners right in front of the UN headquarters saying “Save US democracy”. Merely hundreds of people followed its livestreaming, and many voiced their discontent.
Without doubt, the US-led summit, at the wrong time and wrong place with wrong themes, was well and truly a political scam.
American democracy has been fraught with deep-seated problems
From a historical perspective, the development of democracy in the US was a step forward from the feudal autocracy. Over the years, however, its democracy has become alienated and degenerated.
Problems like money politics, identity politics, wrangling between political parties and systemic racism have become more intense. “One person one vote” exists in name only, and the reality is “rule of the minority elite”. American state power has been a rich men’s game about capital; party disputes override public interests; and people’s trust in the US government has dropped to a low point. The Capitol insurrection earlier this year tore off the fig leaf of American democracy, and the “beacon of democracy” has lost its shine.
Regrettably, instead of fixating on addressing its issues at home, the US hosted a “democracy summit” — the wrong medicine for its malaise.
The credibility of American democracy has been crippled by its power politics worldwide
British scholar Martin Jacques has good questioning — why does the US never use the term “democracy” in the context of the international system, now that it clamors for democracy all day long?
Washington has the veto power in a number of international institutions, takes a selective approach to international mechanisms, and takes unilateral actions at its own will to interfere in others’ internal affairs. It is obsessed with exporting its model elsewhere, and has subverted governments of some countries, causing numerous humanitarian disasters. The “lie about Iraqi WMD” and the “Kabul moment” are sobering wake-up calls to see American hypocrisy. Even US allies have lost their trust in it.
Given the bad record of the US bringing instability and conflict to the world under the banner of democracy as a troublemaker, the credibility of American democracy has gone bankrupt.
American antidemocracy nature has been laid bare, for it divides the international family
To revive democracy is an excuse for the US to put together the summit. Its true purpose is to draw ideological lines, resuscitate the Cold War mentality, fan division and confrontation, suppress those who don’t follow the US, and curb the growth of other countries so as to serve its geopolitical agenda of protecting US hegemony. It claims it held the summit for democracy. But this is in fact the very opposite of democracy. The fair-minded have seen through the trick, and many said “no” to the playbook of the US.
Confronted with the cumulative effect of a pandemic and changes both rarely seen in a century as well as many other emerging global challenges, the international community needs unity rather than division, dialogue rather than confrontation, cooperation rather than internal rift. Supremacy rhetoric is least wanted.
Democracy is a common value of humanity, and no country has the right to hinder other countries from finding political systems and democratic models suited to their own national conditions. Whether or not a country is democratic cannot be judged by the so-called democracy summit of the US, but by its own people.
The Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people to explore a democratic path that fits our circumstances and achieves peaceful development. China’s democracy is whole-process people’s democracy, one that delivers benefits to and gains widespread support from the Chinese people. It is a democracy that truly works.
China’s national rejuvenation has become a historical inevitability, and Hong Kong has ushered in a new historical stage from chaos to stability and prosperity. Never before have the Chinese people been so confident in the socialist democratic system with Chinese characteristics and in a democratic system in line with the Hong Kong situation.
Still, the US and a few other countries are playing dazzling tricks — yet all futile bluffs — in an attempt to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs, discredit China’s social system and development model, and undermine “one country, two systems”. Their plots will be hit back by the Chinese people, opposed by the international community, and produce nothing.
As we Chinese often say, only the wearer knows if his shoes fit or not. Over the decades, China has brought peace and prosperity to the world with its own democratic development. In the future, we will continue to work with other countries to carry forward the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom for all mankind, respect each other on an equal footing, pursue win-win cooperation, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
We urge certain countries and people with ulterior motives to recognize and follow the historical trend, respect the common wishes of people all over the world for peace and cooperation, and stop seeking hegemony under the cover of democracy.
The author is Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.