US' China-bashing farce losing audience

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government rightly rebutted without delay the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission's hot-off-the-press report on China over the SAR's affairs, which is indistinctive among the already numerous "reports" cooked up by politicians in Washington that have invariably tried to besmirch China, including its Hong Kong SAR.

Indistinctive or otherwise, the fresh "report" is unlikely to draw much attention from the international community, no matter how hard the Washington-friendly Western mainstream media will try to hype it up as they usually do.

The international community has long realized that all the relentless China-bashing efforts of Washington politicians have nothing to do with democracy, freedom or human rights in Hong Kong, as they have boringly claimed. Behind such incredible "enthusiasm" and "altruism" toward China and its Hong Kong SAR is Washington politicians' desperate attempt to preserve the US' global hegemony and the vast benefits it bestows, which they fret are being threatened by a rising China.

Washington politicians need a decent banner under which they champion an unholy crusade against China, a country that has toiled and moiled for the improvement of the well-being of its people over the past decades, and has caused no harm and is posing no threat to any country, much less to the US, which has built around 800 militarily bases around the globe, of which over 100 ring China.

But Washington's anti-China crusade is doomed to fail. Signs are already conspicuous that the leaders of more and more countries, big and small, have shunned the "new Cold War" under the guise of "strategic rivalry" or "strategic competition". This is sufficiently evidenced by the fact that some of the world's most influential leaders have visited or are planning their official trips to China, including leaders from Washington's leagues.

European Union leaders who have kept their backbone straight have yet to ditch their well-publicized "strategic autonomy" ideal despite the recently perceived setbacks. Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries have repeatedly made it clear that they abhor being forced to take sides in an unwanted, disastrous "new Cold War". And the majority of African and Latin American countries do not buy Washington's ideas at all after learning from their own bitter past experiences. One can't help but wonder: Aren't those Washington politicians bored performing without audiences?

The author is a current-affairs commentator. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.