By Ma Hanzhi

Leaders of developing countries including Brazil, Türkiye, Mexico, and Venezuela have openly criticized the US on several occasions recently. Their voices expressed the common aspiration of most developing countries, that is, saying no to American hegemony.

For many years, the US has tried to shape other countries and the world order according to its own values and political system in the name of "democracy" and "human rights". This domineering behavior is a form of historical nihilism, and it seriously tramples on the diversity of human civilization and brings political and social upheaval to other countries.

For example, the US has implemented the so-called “Greater Middle East Initiative” in the Middle East, which has brought conflict and disaster rather than peace and stability. In Iraq, the US and its allies’ invasion created many humanitarian catastrophes. The "democratic system" designed by the US for Iraq was based on sectarianism, which ultimately led to social division, frequent conflicts, and popular destitution.

In the past two years, the US has also concocted the so-called Summit for Democracy, openly creating confrontation and division worldwide. Faced with multiple impacts such as the COVID-19 pandemic, developing countries urgently need to  build consensus to promote common development. The US cannot meet those demands and "selectively ignored" them. What the US wants and is adept at doing is frequently playing the cards of "values", "democracy" and "human rights" to consolidate the international order based on its own hegemonic interests. This obviously runs counter to the aspirations of developing countries.

For a long time, to maintain its advantage in the global economic system, the US has been striving to suppress developing countries and hinder their efforts to improve their position in the global industrial and supply chains. For example, the US has long been promoting neoliberal development policies in developing countries in Africa, requiring them to privatize state-owned and public-owned enterprises to facilitate the entry of US capital, while at the same time restricting the use of industrial policies by developing countries to enhance their domestic development capabilities. The US abused its currency hegemony and inflicted great harms on developing countries after the outbreak of COVID-19. In 2022, the US Federal Reserve ended its ultra-loose monetary policy and shifted to a policy of aggressive interest rate hikes and caused turbulence in the international financial markets. This has led to significant depreciation of many currencies such as the Euro, which reached new lows in 20 years. And many developing countries have suffered from serious inflation, currency devaluation, and capital outflows.

As a product of the Cold War, NATO has always served as a military tool for the US to maintain its hegemony. NATO has repeatedly violated international law and basic norms of international relations, frequently provoked regional conflicts and disputes, and launched wars against sovereign states, wreaking havoc on world and regional peace and stability. In 1999, NATO launched a 78-day bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without the approval of the United Nations. Wars launched and participated in by NATO since 2001 have resulted in the deaths of 900,000 people, including nearly 400,000 civilians, and have displaced tens of millions of refugees in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and other countries. Today, the Ukraine crisis triggered by several rounds of NATO expansion is still fermenting, bringing tremendous impact to the security situation in Europe. In Africa, the military intervention of US-led NATO countries in the Libyan political situation has led to prolonged warfare and provided a breeding ground for the spread and expansion of terrorism in the Arab Maghreb and Sahel of Africa.

More and more developing countries  have realized the importance of independence and autonomy in the face of the hegemonic, domineering, and bullying behaviors of the US. After the escalation of the Ukraine crisis, the US frequently forced other countries to take sides but was rejected by many developing countries. Recently, after the internal conflict in Sudan, the African Union expressed a clear stance against external interference. In the Middle East, the diplomatic autonomy of various countries continues to strengthen, and a "reconciliation trend" has emerged. In Latin America, left-wing political forces are expanding, regional integration organizations are revitalized, and a strong desire for regional unity and self-improvement is being demonstrated. Currently, developing countries are pushing world history forward in the right direction with a more active historical initiative and fighting spirit.

(The author is an assistant research fellow at the Department for Developing Countries Studies, China Institute of International Studies)

Editor's note: Originally published on people.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.