Democracy should not be a tool of U.S. to maintain hegemony

By Zhong Sheng, People’s Daily

U.S. President Joe Biden recently talked big about democracy once again, bragging that American democracy remains “unbowed and unbroken” and running his mouth to defame other countries.

However, the fact is just the other way around, despite his efforts to gloss over the problems of American democracy.

Political wrestling is getting increasingly fierce in Washington, and governance challenges are still troubling the United States. Democracy disorder and governance failure have become outstanding issues in the United States today.

The country is in no position to act as a judge of democracy.

The failing American democracy is causing pain for the American society. The Wall Street Journal recently said in an article that most of America does not seem to appreciate Biden’s bragging, and Americans also observe a fraying social consensus that has them worried about the country.

According to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only a quarter of U.S. adults say things in the country are headed in the right direction.

A previous poll by Gallup also suggested that over half of Americans considered that both the Democratic Party and Republican Party were doing poorly in representing the American people.

The recent news headlines in the United States well explain why American democracy has encountered a trust crisis –”A Wake of Tragedy in California After Mass Shootings”, “Protesters hit streets in U.S. after deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols”, “U.S. hits borrowing limit, kicking off fight between Republicans and Democrats”…

American democracy not only failed to make a prescription to the “diseases” that have long troubled the United States, but also made problems trickier. It’s not surprising that Americans are losing confidence in American democracy, which only stages shows and pursues no real outcome.

Rather than reflecting on the problems of American democracy, the United States takes democracy as a tool that helps it maintain its global hegemony.

It launched the War in Afghanistan that lasted 20 years and forced American democracy upon the country, which threw Afghan people into an abyss of misery. After ruining Afghanistan and the future of a generation of Afghan people, the U.S. realized its failure in transplanting American democracy to Afghanistan and withdrew its troops in panic. It even illegally froze the assets of the Afghan central bank.

The U.S. interference in Syria’s domestic affairs under the disguise of democracy also led to disasters. Today, the United States is still plundering petroleum from Syria despite a severe humanitarian crisis that the big earthquake has caused for the Syrian people. What it signals is only overbearing indifference.

Facts prove that the U.S. exportation of democracy is indeed a weapon of mass destruction that hurts other countries. Jeffrey Sachs, a professor from America’s Columbia University, once denounced the hypocritic American democracy, saying the most violent country in the world is the U.S. since 1950.

Since the Biden administration assumed office, it has always been playing the “democracy card” in its diplomacy and selling the hypocritic rhetoric of “democracy versus authoritarianism,” trying to build so-called “alliances of values.” However, as a matter of fact, it is just forming cliques against those that are different and making ideology and values a tool to oppress other countries and advance its geopolitical strategies, which is exactly fake democracy and true hegemonism.

The United States monopolizing the definition of democracy with its own standard is the best example of being undemocratic. Doing the opposite of democracy in the name of democracy and provoking separation and confrontation seriously undermines the stability of the international order and only brings turbulences to the world.

Paul Heer, a distinguished fellow at the Center for the National Interest of the United States warned that the Biden administration sees U.S.-China relations as so-called “democracy versus authoritarianism,” which would lead to risks of over confrontation.

Today’s world is different from what it was in the past. The U.S., trying to replicate a Cold War, has seriously misjudged the current international landscape and the trend of the times.

Democracy is a common value of humanity. It should not be merely a decorative vase or a tool to maintain hegemony. The international society is clearly aware of the dangers of the hypocrisy of American democracy and that as a hegemonic tool of the United States. The U.S. attempts to provoke confrontation, divide the world and suppress other countries in the name of democracy are doomed to fail.

The United States and the Biden administration had better face up to and well manage their own problems, and make Americans believe that their country is headed in the right direction, rather than pointing fingers at other countries and meddling in their domestic affairs.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.)