Double-dealing Washington: The world's greatest scourge

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Days after Washington reiterated in a phone call with Beijing that it would adhere to the one-China policy and not support "Taiwan independence," U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a delegation to visit Taiwan.

This about-face is egregious and dangerous but not so surprising. It revealed Washington's attempt to use Taiwan-related issues to contain China and illustrated once more a U.S. foreign policy rooted in double-dealing.

The current U.S. administration has repeatedly reaffirmed Washington's long-standing one-China policy. It stated that it does not support "Taiwan independence" nor intends to change the cross-Strait situation.

However, Washington has repeatedly eaten its words by colluding with separatist forces in Taiwan. Besides sending its officials to the island for visits, Washington has continued with arms sales to the region. Those moves, challenging Beijing's bottom line, have sought to hollow out the one-China principle, obstruct China's peaceful reunification, and undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Keeping promises matters the most for nation-to-nation relationships. The one-China principle is the political foundation of the China-U.S. relationship and the precondition for the two sides to establish their diplomatic ties. It has a global consensus and is one of the universally recognized basic norms governing international relations.

Washington's repeated regression in its promises on the Taiwan question has tarnished its influence as the world's sole superpower and laid bare the dark nature of its hegemony.

In fact, Washington's Janus-faced approach on Taiwan is only a microcosm of its diplomatic duplicity, the instances of which are far too numerous to list here.

It routinely issues unilateral sanctions and grossly interferes in the domestic affairs of other countries while claiming to defend the UN Charter. It breached its promises and purged its international duties while demanding others "obey the rules." It executed bloody overseas military intrusions, cultural infiltration, incitements to riot, election manipulation and other ruses while claiming to promote or protect "democracy" and "human rights" in the targeted countries.

As U.S. writer William Blum pointed out, Washington has tried to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments since the end of World War II and has interfered in elections in at least 30 nations. A Brown University study found that at least 800,000 people have died in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen since the United States launched the so-called "War on Terror."

Addicted to American exceptionalism and the law of the jungle, Washington has quit 17 international organizations or treaties since the 1980s. Over the past few decades, it has fostered political unrest in Latin America, played a part in the "Arab Spring" and instigated "Color Revolutions" in Europe and Asia. In Latin America, it continues to meddle in the domestic affairs of regional countries under the "Monroe Doctrine." Democracy, it turns out, has become a weapon of mass destruction used by Washington to meddle in other countries.

Discrepancies between words and deeds escape no discerning eyes. It is time for Washington to abandon its morbid obsession with hegemonism, before it makes itself a discredited laughing stock of countries upholding international equity and justice.