Harms of U.S. hegemony can never be whitewashed

The United States always boasts about democracy in its diplomacy, but the belief in hegemony runs in its blood.

A U.S. politician recently claimed that the country is working for "more freedom, more dignity, and more peace" everywhere, saying that "America is rallying the world again to meet those challenges."

However, what the country really does is stoking up ideological confrontation in the name of so-called democracy, forcing other countries to pick sides, abusing illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction, interfering in other countries' internal affairs and trampling on international rules.

U.S. power politics, bullying and hegemonic practices undermine global solidarity and hurt world peace, and have brought catastrophes to people of many countries.

When the U.S. politician was vowing to work for more freedom, more dignity, and more peace, U.S. sanctions were slowing the aid to the Syrian people suffering from the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

"Once again, people dug in the ruins with their hands, hoping, often in vain, to save the people they loved," said an article published by an American media outlet.

Syria is facing a severe humanitarian crisis, but a U.S. State Department spokesperson said that it would be "ironic" for the U.S. to reach out to the Syrian government or lift sanctions on Syria.

Under strong pressure from the international community, the U.S. finally announced, three days after the earthquake took place, to temporarily ease some of its sanctions on Syria, but only for 180 days.

Even today, U.S. troops still occupy Syria's principal oil fields, plunder more than 80 percent of the country's oil production, and have smuggled and burned Syria's grain stock.

It would be more ironic to see Afghan people still waiting for the Afghan central bank assets frozen by the U.S., under the so-called "work for more freedom, more dignity, and more peace."

The U.S. imposed by force in Afghanistan the so-called "democratic transformation" that lasted 20 years, which has led to the death of over 174,000 people, including 30,000 civilians, and made tens of millions refugees.

It's been more than a year since the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, but the negative impacts of the war in Afghanistan never fade.

Millions of Afghans are struggling on the verge of death, huge numbers of Afghan children are out of school due to poverty, and many people face acute food shortages. These facts fully expose the hypocrisy as well as the hegemonic and bullying nature of American democracy and human rights.

"Democracy" is just a tool of the U.S. to preserve hegemony in its diplomatic practice. The country has been used to forcing its political system and values upon others, instigating color revolutions in the name of "democratic transformation," arbitrarily interfering in other countries' internal affairs and attempting to overthrow foreign governments, which has trapped many countries and regions in turbulences, conflicts and wars.

Over the recent years, American politicians have become even more unscrupulous in maintaining U.S. hegemony.

Former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton once publicly admitted that he had helped plot coups in other countries and said coups can sometimes be "a necessary way to advance American interest."

Bolton's remarks indicated that the U.S. is the biggest enemy of democracy and human rights, said former Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Seeing its declining hegemonic influence, the current U.S. administration is trying to assemble a so-called "value alliance" that ropes in or forces some countries to pick sides by fabricating the false rhetoric of "democracy versus authoritarianism." However, it can never change the fact that the U.S. is indeed protecting its hegemony in the name of so-called democracy.

To seek hegemony and private interests, the country issued the Inflation Reduction Act that sacrificed European manufacturing, launched the so-called Indo‑Pacific Economic Framework that makes no market access promise, and threatened other countries to push for "decoupling and severing supply chains."

The U.S. is always ready to impose sanctions, interfere in other countries' internal affairs and hinder international rules for its hegemony and private interests. By fiscal year 2021, the number of active U.S. sanctions designations had increased to more than 9,400.

These facts fully prove that the U.S. always advocates the jungle law and practices hegemony, no matter how it disguises itself with the so-called democracy.

As the repulsive purpose of American democracy has made obvious, the serious harms of U.S. hegemony are fully exposed. American politicians should stop their awkward performance of whitewashing themselves, quit their arrogant lecturing on democracy and stop their hegemonic practice that hurts the world.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.)