Fly in the ointment

With its leadership and dominance on the decline, the US is pushing for a new Cold War

Since Joe Biden took office as President of the United States, Washington has once again held high the ideological banner and practiced its values-based diplomacy with a Cold War approach.

However, the US' own image as a democracy is collapsing, which is a common perception around the world, including among Western countries.

In recent years, the US has seen the polarization of its politics, the hollowing out of its economy and greater social divide. The nation's democratic system has been continuously eroded. The collapse of the US democratic system has been laid bare by a host of events, from the torture of prisoners to the violent deportation of immigrants, from mass shootings to the rolling back of abortion rights, from George Floyd's death to the Capitol Hill riots.

The West is losing confidence in US democracy. Thomas Homer-Dixon, a Canadian scholar who studies violent conflict, wrote in the Globe and Mail, "By 2025, American democracy could collapse." Martin Wolf, a commentator with the Financial Times, said that the transformation of the US from a democratic republic into an autocracy has advanced, and by 2024, it might be irreversible. Some US scholars also pessimistically believe that in the next three to four years, the US is likely to be convulsed by large-scale violent conflicts, the collapse of the federal government, and the division of the country into confrontational red and blue camps.

The international image of the US as a functioning democracy is also collapsing. The rushed withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan last August made the US a global laughing stock. Washington has always pursued a hegemonic strategy, upheld a domineering style and carried out bullying behavior. Now, in order to curb China's development and rise, the US is forcing other countries to choose sides politically and engaging in coercive diplomacy economically. This is contrary to the democratic values it espouses. Thus, it is extremely hypocritical for the US to pursue its so-called values-based diplomacy.

The US has done so out of strategic considerations.

Maintaining its global hegemony has been a consistent strategy of the US since World War II. As the world is faced undergoing profound changes, the US faces two major challenges. The first challenge is the development and rise of China, which has been a major shock to the global hegemony of the US and changed the international landscape. To contain and combat China's rise has become the primary strategic goal of Washington. The second challenge is the weakening of the US' control over its system of allies, which is also weakening its hegemony.

The US has realized that it can no longer single-handedly stop China's development and rise. Only by uniting its allies and partners to besiege China can it achieve its goals. With the decline in its own strength, ideology is the main or perhaps the only way for the US to win over and coerce Western countries to jointly deal with China. Holding high the banner of ideology and promoting value-based diplomacy can also bolster the unity of the Western world, prevent the weakening of its alliances, and enhance the US leadership in the Western world.

The move by the US to push forward values-based democracy with Cold War mentality and tactics has had serious consequences for global peace and development.

First, it has triggered confrontation and divided the world. Under the coercion from Washington, Western countries have shown a tendency to go against China and Russia. The US uses its values as the flag and its so-called democracy to draw the line, and is attempting to form exclusive organizations such as a technology alliance, a semiconductor alliance and a supply chain alliance to promote decoupling and the severing of supply chains between the West and China. Western countries have become more and more radical in interfering in China's internal affairs in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and on the Taiwan question, and the ideological confrontation between China and the West has escalated significantly. In Europe, the US has provoked the Russia-Ukraine conflict and promoted a Cold War-style confrontation pattern.

Second, the current strategic policy of the US has undermined the underlying logic that was formed over a long period. For example, the US has developed a number of exclusive economic and technological alliances that violate the principle of free trade, fragment the global free trade system, and hinder global economic growth. The European Union, under the pressure from the US, has cut off energy ties with Russia, put ideology above the interests of national development and subverted the inherent logic of political economy.

Third, it has resulted in the reversal of globalization. Globalization can enable the most reasonable and efficient allocation of various resources and maximize the interests of all parties. However, the US' values-based diplomacy has created barriers and gaps, disrupted the global industrial chains, fragmented the world economy, brought serious obstacles to global economic growth, and may plunge the world economy into a recession.

The author is deputy director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn