The so-called “Summit for Democracy” held by the U.S. in the name of democracy recently concluded amongst widespread criticism from the international community.
It is generally believed that the “Summit for Democracy” reeked of hypocrisy and was more like a show put on by American politicians. The event has proven nothing but the fact that the U.S. itself is the biggest threat to democracy.
The attempt of the U.S. to contain other countries and split the world by holding the “Summit for Democracy” was doomed to failure.
Although the Cold War ended 30 years ago, the so-called “Summit for Democracy” of the U.S. was full of Cold War mentality.
Based on its own standards, the U.S. labeled some countries and regions as democracies and the rest non-democracies, exposing its evil intention of pushing the world back into a bipolar system. Fortunately, the international community sees right through its ruse.
The so-called “Summit for Democracy” runs counter to true democratic spirit from its framework to agenda, said an article published on the website of The News International, a Pakistani news outlet.
The summit was political manipulation purely out of political purposes, said Don Pramudwinai, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), a famous think tank, wrote in an article published on Nov. 28 that the “Summit for Democracy” initiated by the U.S. “attempts to turn the multicolor modern world into black and white divisions.”
The so-called “Summit for Democracy” was a tool used by the U.S. to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and maintain hegemony, observed the media of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and many other countries in the Middle East.
Trying to turn democracy into its own property, tool, and weapon, the U.S. has betrayed and trampled over the spirit and value of democracy.
Whether a country is democratic or not should be decided by its own people, not by a handful of finger-pointing outsiders.
There is no perfect democratic system in the world that suits all countries. The establishment of democratic systems and the advances of democracy in various countries have their own historical and national characteristics, as well as unique values.
However, the U.S., which poses as an “international judge of democracy,” is attempting to monopolize the definition of democracy with its own criteria in total disregard of the enormous differences in the culture, history, and civilization of different countries. The act is, in fact, the complete opposite of democracy.
The U.S. peddled American democracy through the “Summit for Democracy” but rejected truly democratic international cooperation, defying the principle of the sovereign equality of all nations enshrined in the UN Charter, pointed out Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
For a long time, the U.S. has willfully interfered in other countries’ internal affairs and launched wars against others to export democracy.
However, instead of fostering democracy, its hegemonic acts have led to numerous humanitarian disasters in other countries.
Through the U.S. Agency for International Development and other government agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations in the U.S., including the National Endowment for Democracy, the country has engaged in infiltrating and subverting other sovereign countries by inciting “color revolutions.”
The U.S. has indiscriminately imposed unilateral sanctions against other countries on the pretext of promoting democracy, and launched military interventions in countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya, which have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, caused millions of injuries, and displaced tens of millions of people.
As it caused countless tragedies in the name of democracy, the true purposes and actual harm of its exporting democracy have become increasingly prominent.
A poll conducted among people in Arab countries, who have long suffered from America’s exporting democracy, suggests that 58 percent of the respondents have a negative attitude toward the foreign policy of the U.S., and 81 percent consider the U.S. a significant threat to the security of Arab countries.
Democracy is the common value of all mankind. The U.S., however, has made use of democracy to serve its selfish interests. Such misdeeds have ripped off its mask of “democracy defender” and revealed the true features of the country as a “democracy wrecker” to all.
If the U.S. really wants to defend democracy, it should, together with the rest of the world, promote peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom, which are shared values of humanity, stick to the basic norms governing international relations based on the UN Charter, push ahead with democracy and the rule of law in international relations, address global challenges and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.)
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