Commentary: America's bullying tactics for global hegemony

BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- In recent years, America has gone to great lengths to retain its global hegemony by stifling the development of other countries, say, China.

Washington does this in a myriad number of ways: fabricating lies, fomenting trouble, and forcing China out. Particularly in the high-tech realm, where it has framed a rising China as a spy, a cyber threat and a human rights violator to pave way for its sanctions and protectionist curbs.

These bullying tactics are incessant and diverse, but they all boil down to suppression, containment and defamation. Behind them is the belief that might makes right and U.S. global supremacy as the world's sole superpower must remain intact.

Plundering is a handy tactic in U.S. toolkit, and such practices are abundant in its expansionist history. American Indians and Latin Americans were not the only victims. More recently, the unscrupulous robber has been looting in broad daylight in war-torn countries.

Official data from Syria show that over 80 percent of Syria's oil production in the first half of 2022 was plundered by the U.S. military and its supported armed forces. America has frozen the overseas assets of impoverished Afghanistan since 2021, and is scheming to redirect these resources for their own purposes.

The United States has also been seizing Iranian oil tankers on international trade routes, surreptitiously bringing Iranian oil back to the United States for sale and attempting to legitimize this act of robbery as "imports."

Even U.S. allies can not rest assured. Medical supplies ordered and purchased by Germany, France and Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic have been snapped up at higher prices or intercepted by the United States. By rolling out the protectionist Inflation Reduction Act, Washington badly hurt the interests of European companies.

Daniel Kovalik, a visiting law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, pointed out that the United States is always ready to employ the tried-and-true tactic of plunder.

Moreover, America never shuns war whenever it feels necessary. Of its over 240-year history, more than 90 percent involved warfare. From conflicts with Native Americans to wars with Mexico, the conquest of the American West, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Kosovo War, the War in Afghanistan, the Iraq War and more, the country's war machine have ravaged on almost all continents.

Over the years, U.S. warfares across the world have taken various forms beyond just military. After World War II, the United States leveraged the U.S. dollar's dominance to wield the cudgel of sanctions against adversaries or competitors, readily engaging in trade wars and bullying. From the Cold War onwards, it has been flexing its muscles in technology, economy and finance to suppress or strangle its rivals.

Its latest moves to push for "decoupling" and "de-risking" are no different, albeit served with defamation.

Leveraging its dominance in global media discourse, the United States lies, cheats and smears "uncooperative" nations, courting allies into its disinformation binge.

During the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency launched "Project Mockingbird," purchasing media personnel worldwide to manipulate public opinion through media influence.

In recent years, Washington has concocted a series of sensationalized "charges" against China, including the so-called "genocide" in Xinjiang, "neocolonialism" in Africa and "debt traps" pertaining to the Belt and Road Initiative, all aimed at demonizing China and containing its friendly cooperation with others.

In his book The Hypocritical Superpower, German author Michael Lueders illustrates how Washington excels in distorting facts, narrowing news sources and polarizing public judgments to create confusion and chaos.

Posturing as the representative of "universal values" who stands on a moral high ground, the United States has portrayed itself as the "God's Chosen," and played well such cards as religion, democracy, human rights and national security, to cover up its hegemonic pursuits and illicit deeds.

Now as the world has come to its senses, U.S. politicians' duplicity of saying one thing and doing another has increasingly exposed their hypocrisy. Washington now faces an impossible task to convince the world it practices what it preaches.