US' hegemonic thinking laid bare by its bid to claim moral high ground: China Daily editorial

Repeatedly stressing its openness to dialogue with Beijing on any subject conducive to easing tensions, Washington is seemingly adopting a more conciliatory approach to relations. But that change must be taken with a pinch of salt. Washington is simply trying to climb onto the moral high ground leaving Beijing to blame for the deteriorating relations that Washington bears the responsibility for souring.

To consolidate this position, the Joe Biden administration is also portraying the United States as being the victim of China's aggressive behavior.

As the latest manifestation of this, it has pointed an accusing finger at the People's Liberation Army. Decrying the maneuvers of a PLA fighter jet and a battleship as "unprofessional", "dangerous" and "irresponsible" for responding to the US Air Force conducting close-shore surveillance and the US Navy conducting a so-called freedom of navigation operation on China's doorstep.

"There was absolutely no need for the PLA to act as aggressively as they did," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a news conference on Monday, warning that "it won't be long before somebody gets hurt."

But no matter how far Washington goes in a bid to portray the US as the party being wronged, it cannot hoodwink the rest of the world. It is clear to all that it is the Biden administration and the security establishment in Washington that are pushing things to the brink of calamity.

Washington used both the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, last month, and the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last week as stages to put on an anti-China show. However, its performances only served to highlight the depths of its duplicity.

In Hiroshima, it tried to make a collective response to China's "economic coercion" a key summit agenda, and thereafter a common challenge to the world; in Singapore, it depicted China's efforts to defend its sovereignty as "threats" to regional peace and stability. While the real threats to those, which stem from the US' actions to contain China, it portrayed as endeavors to safeguard peace and order.

It is the Biden administration that has taken the initiative to discard the US' long-term "strategic ambiguity" over the Taiwan question to support "Taiwan independence". Its scheme of using Taiwan as a geopolitical tool to provoke Beijing into a hasty act being clear to all.

Would the US tolerate a country supporting efforts to secede any part of its territory, send warplanes and battleships to regularly carry out close-shore surveillance and exercise "freedom of navigation" operations in its waters, or collude with almost all its neighbors to form an operational radius of action covering all its major cities?

Kirby was correct in saying that "it won't be long before somebody gets hurt". But that warning should be heeded by the White House, as it is not Beijing and the PLA that are being aggressive.