US' governance failures leave it with no leg to stand on as 'champion' of human rights, democracy: China Daily editorial

That six people, including three schoolchildren aged 9 and under, have been killed in a shooting by an ex-student, who was later shot dead by the police, at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday is just the latest heartbreaking reminder of the incorrigibility of gun violence in the United States.

Calling it a "family's worst nightmare", US President Joe Biden said: "We have to do more to stop gun violence," urging Congress to pass gun control laws — a show he has become accustomed to as he has staged it every time such a tragedy happens.

As of Sunday, more than 9,800 people had lost their lives to gun violence in the US this year, including nearly 400 children and teenagers, according to Gun Violence Archive.

The question is for how long the Biden administration will continue to pay lip service to the US people while allowing gun violence to rip their communities apart; ripping "the very soul of this nation", as Biden put it.

Yet as the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2022, issued by the State Council Information Office of China on Tuesday, notes, gun violence constitutes just one of the symptoms of the major "chronic diseases" that plague the US. Money politics, police violence, wealth polarization and racial discrimination are also signs that something is not right in the self-proclaimed champion of human rights and democracy.

The Biden administration should address the US' own serious human rights problems rather than pointing accusing fingers at others.

Washington's paranoia to weaponize democracy is another symptom of its institutional malady that is attributable to its human rights violations.

In spite of its many shortcomings, the US once again created ideological divisions in the world, and trampled on the spirit of democracy with its second so-called democracy summit.

As Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, what the world needs today is not to interfere in other countries' internal affairs under the guise of democracy, but to practice true democracy, reject pseudo democracy and promote democracy in international relations.

And what the world needs today is not the 2nd Summit for Democracy that Washington is hosting on Wednesday and Thursday, but true solidarity and cooperation that can actually solve the problems facing the international community.

The advancement of the human rights cause needs dialogue and mutual understanding, not interference in other countries' internal affairs under the banner of democracy.

The US' wanton use of human rights as a weapon to attack other countries in order to hold back their development and create confrontation, division and chaos has become a spoiler and obstructor of the global human rights cause.

The US' politicizing, weaponizing and instrumentalizing of human rights issues should be opposed by all countries.