So-called "democracy summit" patently "antidemocratic," says Chinese envoy

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government's so-called "Summit for Democracy," with a list of participants it biasedly handpicked, is obviously "antidemocratic" and harmful to global peaceful coexistence, according to a Chinese envoy.

In an article published Wednesday in Venezuelan daily El Universal, Chinese Ambassador to Venezuela Li Baorong noted that far from promoting democracy, the divisive summit seems designed to disturb harmonious international relations.

"Judging which is a 'democratic" country or which is not is precisely the typical Cold War ideology, and a provocation of rivalry and contradiction, causing new divisions. The convocation of 'The Summit for Democracy' is a scandalous antidemocratic act in itself," said the ambassador.

Li pointed out that the United States has long suffered from political polarization, governance disorder, abuse of populism, and social division, and its catastrophic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic has endangered countless lives.

"A country whose own democratic situation is bankrupt has no right to convene such a summit," he stressed, condemning the United States' arbitrary judgment regarding whether other countries are "democratic or not."

While Washington pursues its disruptive foreign policy, said Li, China and its people are on an upward path, not by subjugating other countries but by designing a governance system that best suits China's national conditions.

Democracy is not a "patent" of a single country, but a shared value of all humanity. There are various ways to implement democracy instead of adopting one universal model, the ambassador said.