US uses ‘ideological bias to split world,’ aims for confrontation

As the US will hold its second "Summit for Democracy" from Wednesday to Thursday, Chinese experts said that compared to the first summit in 2021, the latest event shows nothing new in nature - fake democracy but real hegemony, as the standard for inviting the guest countries is based on Washington's diplomatic preferences and serves its hegemonic strategy to split rather than unite the world with ideological bias.

The US is a country with messy internal governance, and the human rights situation in the country is in deep trouble. The US political system, with endless partisan struggles, continues to divide the nation and fails to solve problems of grave concerns to Americans, analysts said. Therefore, Washington is totally unqualified and is in no position to lecture others about democracy and "human rights," and the event will only make the US look even more awkward and embarrassed.

According to the US Department of State, the "Summit for Democracy" will be held from March 29 to 30 with leaders from Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia participating. The US has also extended invitations to 120 foreign governments and other partners to attend the event, mainly via video links.

The criteria for invitation is very vague, as many countries with Western democratic political systems are not on the list. For instance, the EU member Hungary and the NATO member Turkey are apparently not included. Singapore, a small country with a developed economy which plays a key role to bridge the West and the East, has also not been invited. The US Department of State refused to discuss the criteria, media reported.

Fake democracy, real hegemony

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that the summit is all about forming an ideological platform for combating countries whom the American political elite labels as autocracies, primarily Russia and China.

"The US has no moral right to lecture others amid chronic domestic issues. This binary way of thinking in 'black-white' or 'good guys vs bad guys' does not work in real life. And it is in no way good for building long-term relations with sovereign countries," Zakharova said, according to Tass.

"We applaud the remarks of the Russian side.," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a routine press conference on Tuesday. "We have stated our position on the so-called "Summit for Democracy" on multiple occasions. Despite the many problems at home, the US is hosting another "Summit for Democracy" in the name of promoting democracy, an event that blatantly draws an ideological line between countries and creates division in the world. The act violates the spirit of democracy and further reveals the US' pursuit of primacy behind the facade of democracy," Mao said.

Experts said just as at the first summit, the second summit will still be a platform for the US to use the pretexts of democracy and "human rights" to divide other countries and to gather a group of its followers to target another group of countries that refuse to obey the US hegemony. Many of those participants will be reluctant to simply follow US instructions to show hostility to countries that the US dislikes.

US President Joe Biden understands that the previous Trump administration  seriously damaged the image of US "democracy," and the fairytale of being a so-called beacon of democracy had basically collapsed. "So, he hopes to use the 'democracy summit' to restore the US' confidence, curb China's influence, and at least maintain an advantage of an ideological slogan in its competition with China," Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Chang Jian, director of the Research Center for Human Rights at the Tianjin-based Nankai University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the Biden administration is using "democracy" as a strategic tool. Such a summit is not inclusive but more hegemonic, which runs counter to the nature of democracy.