The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022

4. Undermining democracy in international relations

International affairs bear on the common interests of mankind, and should be conducted through consultation by all countries. Yet, the US has never truly observed the principle of democracy in international relations. Under the pretext of "multilateralism" and "international rules", and clinging to the Cold War mentality, the US has exercised fake multilateralism and bloc politics, instigated division and antagonism, created bloc confrontation, and practiced unilateralism in the name of multilateralism. Its hegemonic, domineering and bullying acts seriously impede the development of true multilateralism.

The US places its domestic law above international law, and adopts a selective approach to international rules, applying and discarding such rules as it sees fit. Since the 1980s, the US has withdrawn from 17 important international organizations or agreements, including the UN Human Rights Council, WHO, UNESCO, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the JCPOA, the Arms Trade Treaty, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Treaty on Open Skies.

The US flagrantly violates the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations, waging wars and creating division and conflict across the world. Throughout its history of 240-plus years, the US has been at peace for only 16 years — it is indeed the most belligerent country in world history. Since the end of World War II, the US has waged or participated in many wars overseas, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War, which caused immense civilian casualties and property losses as well as humanitarian catastrophes. Since 2001, the wars and military operations that the US launched in the name of fighting terrorism have killed more than 900,000 people, including some 335,000 civilians, injured millions and displaced tens of millions.

Paying no heed to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and principles of international law, or to the democratic rights of Asia-Pacific countries and Pacific island countries in regional and international affairs, the US has emboldened Japan by expressly supporting its decision to discharge the nuclear waste water from Fukushima, even though the government of Japan has not yet fully consulted stakeholders and relevant international agencies on the disposal, not yet provided sufficient scientific and factual grounds for its behavior, and not yet addressed the legitimate concerns of the international community. On the other hand, the US administration, citing "radionuclide contamination", banned the import of Japanese food and agricultural products from areas around Fukushima, exposing the hypocrisy of typical US-style double standards.

Advancing the Cold War mentality in the South Pacific region, the US has ganged up with the UK and Australia to put together AUKUS, a racist clique, and pledged to help Australia build at least eight nuclear submarines together with the UK. The move constitutes a serious violation of the principles of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, treading a reckless line on the brink of nuclear proliferation and creating tremendous risks. It has also opened the Pandora's box of regional arms race, casting a shadow over regional peace, security and stability.

Prior to the ninth Summit of the Americas in June 2022, Julio Yao, a Panamanian expert on international issues, wrote in local media that today's US is an absolute renegade of international law, and the most genuinely authentic personification of the use of brute force in international relations. The US is the only country that has not signed or ratified any human rights treaty, and is not a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is the only country that does not ban secret biological weapons, with more than 200 laboratories outside its borders. The only thing that the US intends to do with the Summit of the Americas is to involve Latin America and the Caribbean in the war in Ukraine and to divide and weaken them.

In August 2022, a South China Morning Post article noted that the so-called "democracies" of the US and the West have been relentlessly chipping away at the foundations of international rules and exploiting them when it's convenient. While the US and the West denounce Russia's "invasion "of Ukraine, they forget their serial interventions, subversions and interference across the globe. What the US did has smashed up the world economy, thereby exposing more middle-income countries to debt crises. When the big powers are selective in following the rules they wrote, the whole system loses credibility.

5. Foisting a trumped-up narrative of "democracy versus authoritarianism"

Harboring the Cold War mentality, a hegemonic logic and a preference for bloc politics, the US administration has framed a narrative of "democracy versus authoritarianism", and labeled countries as "autocracies", with a view to using ideology and values as a tool to suppress other countries and advance its own geostrategy under the disguise of democracy.

In 2021, the US held the first "Summit for Democracy", attempting to divide the international community into so-called "democratic and undemocratic camps" by openly drawing an ideological line. The move drew questions extensively, including from within the US. Both Foreign Affairs and The Diplomat carried articles criticizing the summit as chasing the wrong goal, not only failing to achieve unity among democratic countries, but also drawing criticism for the representation issue. The US has long lacked a set goal in its promotion of democracy around the world, and has been slow in following up its rhetoric. When democracy in the US is in such a mess, holding a democracy summit cannot boost democracy around the world, but more likely create a greater geopolitical crisis. Hitoshi Tanaka, Chairman of the Institute for International Strategy of Japan, pointed out that the US has been imposing "democracy" on other countries, advancing the "democracy versus authoritarianism" campaign, and expanding global division. Japan should not blindly follow suit.

To brand oneself as democracy while others as autocracies is in itself an act contrary to democracy. The so-called "democracy versus authoritarianism" narrative does not reflect the realities of today's world, nor is it in line with the trend of the times. "Belarus 1", a state television station of Belarus, commented that the list of participants to the summit was clearly based on the US standard of "freedom", but the question was how could the US believe that it could monopolize the definition and interpretation of democracy, and tell others what democracy should look like. Singapore's Straits Times carried a column that said the US must realize that American democracy has lost its former luster, and is no longer the gold standard. There is no fixed model of democracy, and the US no longer has an absolute say over what democracy means. That is the truth. The US should pragmatically reassess its diplomatic methods and focus on cooperation instead of confrontation.

Despite unprecedentedly low ratings of US democracy at home and abroad, the country's hysteria to export US-style democracy and values continues unabated. The US has not only cobbled together values-based alliances such as AUKUS, the Quad and the Five Eyes, but also attempted to disrupt and undermine normal international cooperation in economy, trade, science, technology, culture and people-to-people exchanges by drawing ideological lines and trumpeting the Cold War mentality. Al Jazeera observed that the US insistence on holding a democracy summit and acting as a global democratic leader even when trust in its own democratic system is declining has raised widespread suspicion. James Goldgeier, professor of international relations at American University, said the US has lost its credibility, and that its administration should hold a domestic democracy summit to focus on injustice and inequality, including issues such as voting rights and disinformation. Emma Ashford, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, questioned how can the US spread democracy or act as an example for others if it barely has a functioning democracy at home. The South China Morning Post pointed out that the summit reflected two myths about US democracy: First, global advance of democracy since the end of the Cold War is backsliding and it needs the US to reverse it; second, the US is the most important democracy in the world and its global leadership is paramount for other countries. These two myths completely ignore the democratic backsliding in the US, the rejection of the overwhelming majority of countries to being kidnapped by the hypocritical "concept of democracy" of the US, and the strong desire of developing countries to grow their economies and raise living standards.

IV. Conclusion

Democracy is humanity's common value; however, there is no single model of political system that is applicable to all countries in the world. Human civilization, if compared to a garden, should be a diverse place in which democracy in different countries blooms like a hundred flowers. The US has American-style democracy, China has Chinese-style democracy, and other countries have their own unique models of democracy that suit their respective national conditions. It should be up to the people of a country to judge whether the country is democratic or not and how to better promote democracy in their country. The few self-righteous countries have no right to point fingers.

Those who have many flaws themselves have little credibility to lecture others. Attempts to undermine others for one's own profit and destabilize the world must be unanimously opposed. A black-and-white division of countries as democratic or authoritarian is both anachronistic and arbitrary. What our world needs today is not to stoke division in the name of democracy and pursue de facto supremacy-oriented unilateralism, but to strengthen solidarity and cooperation and uphold true multilateralism on the basis of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. What our world needs today is not to interfere in other countries' internal affairs under the guise of democracy, but to advocate genuine democracy, reject pseudo-democracy and jointly promote greater democracy in international relations. What our world needs today is not a "Summit for Democracy" that hypes up confrontation and contributes nothing to the collective response to global challenges, but a conference of solidarity that focuses on taking real actions to solve prominent global challenges.

Freedom, democracy and human rights are the common pursuit of humanity, and values that the Communist Party of China (CPC) always pursues. China commits to and advances whole-process people's democracy, and puts into action the principle of people running the country in the CPC's exercise of national governance in specific and concrete ways. China stands ready to strengthen exchanges and mutual learning with other countries on the issue of democracy, advocate humanity's common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, promote greater democracy in international relations, and make new and greater contributions to human progress.