By Zhang Zhixin
On February 15, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman claimed that China is a growing challenge that has the ability to challenge the rules-based international order. Sherman's statement represents the arrogant and ignorant attitude of some American officials, who seem to believe that only by playing up the "China threat" can the US find an excuse for its militaristic and hegemonic behavior. However, the international community will never turn a deaf ear to this. As the old Chinese saying goes that "justice naturally inhabits man’s heart", the US will eventually be condemned by the international community for an unjust cause to find little support.
As stated in the report titled US Hegemony and Its Perils issued by the Chinese government on February 20, the US military hegemony featuring wanton use of force has led to humanitarian tragedies around the world. According to the report, the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan in the name of fighting against terrorism has devastated the country. A total of 47,000 Afghan civilians and 66,000 to 69,000 Afghan soldiers and police officers unrelated to the 9/11 attacks were killed in the US military operations, and more than 10 million people were displaced. The war in Afghanistan destroyed the foundation of economic development there and plunged the Afghan people into destitution. During the “Kabul debacle” in 2021, the US perfectly reproduced the "Saigon moment" when departing from Saigon, Vietnam in 1975, highlighting the US' consistent, irresponsible attitude on the issue related to the Afghan war.
In addition to exacerbating the humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, the US has once again played the role of self-serving destroyer of the international order in fanning the flames of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and further promoting NATO's northward expansion, constantly compressing Russia's strategic space. In fact, many well-known American experts and scholars have been warning NATO not to expand eastward without restraint since the end of the 1990s, which may trigger fierce responses from Russia. In 2022, John Miresheimer, a Professor at the University of Chicago also expressed that the US’ promotion of the eastward expansion of NATO and establishment of friendly relations with Ukraine have increased the possibility of war between nuclear powers and laid the groundwork for the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Facts have proved that the US has been advancing three goals in Eurasia since the Russia-Ukraine conflict breakout as triggered by the US. First, the US has firmly tied Europe to the US chariot for containing and fighting against Russia, and made it a forced option for European countries to be against Russia by relying on the US; second, it has consolidated the “legitimacy" foundation for NATO's continued existence; third, it has curbed the resurgence of Russia to a certain extent.
More importantly, the US military-industrial complex, a mighty interest group, and energy interest groups have made a fortune in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Jimmy Dore, a US political commentator, pointed out in this regard that the non-stop war machine controls the US, the media funded by the military-industrial complex serve to be witch the Americans and publicize war as inspired by the American government, and the military-industrial complex has extorted hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars from Ukraine which was played for a sucker.
Recently, despite the opposition of China, the US insisted on shooting down the Chinese civilian unmanned airship by resorting to force, highlighting its disregard for international rules and international morality and fully exposing its true face of hegemony. Spokespersons for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs have repeatedly stated that the Chinese airship mistakenly entered the US due to force majeure is of civilian nature and is used for meteorological and other scientific research, and that China will continue to keep communications with the US to properly handle the unexpected situation caused by force majeure. However, the conservatives in the US have made a big noise against the Chinese unmanned airship’s entry into the US airspace by mistake, calling it a "spy balloon invasion" and "intending to spy on the US missile base". Under strong political pressure, the US Biden administration sent an advanced fighter jet to shoot down the airship with missiles when it had flown off the east coast of the US, which happened unexpectedly and is a ridiculous farce staged by the US side. Subsequently, the US government also hyped up that China has had a "high-altitude balloon surveillance program" targeting all countries around the world, and brazenly announced sanctions against six Chinese enterprises and institutions, highlighting the attempt of the US to play up the "Chinese spy threat" through the airship incident, as well as its hegemonic act of abusing force.
In short, as shown by the above-mentioned cases of freezing the assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank, fanning the blames of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and shooting down the Chinese unmanned airship for no reason, it is easy to conclude that the US hegemony and hegemonic acts are the greatest contempt and destruction to the existing international order and international rules. No matter what pretext and disguise Sherman and others use to cover up and package the US, the US can never be exempted from the strong condemnation of the international community.
(Doctor Zhang Zhixin is an associate researcher of the Institute of American Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations)
Editor's note: Originally published on china.com.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
