The United States is the "Voldemort" who plagues the world

【Special Attention to The Russian-Ukrainian Situation Scholars' Talk】

Author: Zheng Dongchao (Special Researcher, Beijing Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era)

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is the largest geopolitical event of the 21st century. From the flames of war to the current situation in a state of stalemate, the United States is the greatest "hero" deservedly. The United States has taken advantage of NATO, a legacy of the Cold War, to seize the "pain point" of Russia's security, to shake Ukraine's accession to NATO, to challenge Russia's security bottom line, and to vainly attempt to use low-cost proxy war to put Russia to death and realize its ambition to stabilize global hegemony. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is a "mirror of demons," illuminating the original form of the United States not hesitating to undermine the international political, economic, and security order for its own selfish interests, and reflecting the anxiety and panic of the United States about the sunset of hegemony. The hegemonic behavior of the United States, which is blind to everything, will eventually regurgitate itself.

A pursuer of a hegemonic order

Today's world is in the midst of major changes unprecedented in a century. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is a new variable in the great changes, which is bound to trigger a long-term tension in international relations and have a profound impact on the future international political order. The international environment facing Russia will change dramatically. The United States will not give up the "good opportunity" to contain Russia and make the greatest use of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to continue to "bleed" Russia. Some politicians in Western countries have explicitly said that this time they must completely bring down Russia economically and completely marginalize Russia politically. It is foreseeable that even if the Russian-Ukrainian conflict ends, the all-round confrontation between the United States and Russia will not end. Taking advantage of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States has successfully established Russia as a common enemy of the United States and Europe, smashed Europe's "illusions" about Russia, and strengthened its security dominance over Europe. The vast number of Asian, African, and Latin American countries and even some allies of the United States have seen through the true intention of the United States to provoke conflicts and let other countries take advantage of the fire, and are unwilling to become pawns of the United States, and their independent will and ability will be greatly enhanced. The New York Times article noted that "most of the 195 countries in the world have not shipped weapons to Ukraine or joined the sanctions against Russia," indicating that "most countries in the world do not stand with the West." These countries are numerous and account for a large proportion of the world's population, and they are a "new middle ground" force that cannot be ignored in the brewing and dividing combination of international political power.

The ambition of the United States to replace the United Nations order with a hegemonic order is immortal, and it attempts to use the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to break the existing international power structure and international political order, change the balance of the global power structure that has been maintained for more than 70 years after World War II, and take the lead in building a new system and new order of global power that is beneficial to the country. On 26 April this year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that the President of the General Assembly should hold a general debate within 10 working days after the veto power of the permanent members of the Security Council is exercised, at which all UN members can review and comment on the veto. Some commentators believe that this is a "coup" planned by the United States to deprive Russia of its power in the United Nations Security Council. The United Nations system formed after World War II is experiencing unprecedented cracks and shakes, exposing the arrogant ambition of the United States to monopolize the power of the United Nations Security Council, trying to achieve monopoly of United Nations power and doing whatever it wants in global affairs, forcing the United Nations order to submit to the order of power.

Manipulators of anti-globalization

Economic globalization is an objective requirement for the development of productive forces and the inevitable result of scientific and technological progress. The United States was once the main driver of economic globalization, after World War II, the developed countries represented by the United States have a strong demand for global markets, raw materials and labor, accelerate the process of globalization, actively participate in the construction of a global free trade system, vigorously promote the process of regional economic integration, objectively promote the rational flow of global production factors, and globalization benefits most countries in the world. But the United States is the main beneficiary of globalization, with multinational corporations as the main carrier of capital groups making a lot of money, huge profits so that American companies and rich people have long occupied the top of the world's top 500 companies and Forbes rich list.

But over time, the playbook of globalization has changed. Both Trump and Biden believe that the decline in the global economic position of the United States and the emergence of huge trade deficits are the scourge of globalization. Both administrations have mixed non-market factors such as politics and security in economic and trade relations. The United States has gradually alienated from a promoter of globalization to an obstacle to globalization, regarded the free market as a guideline in the past, "instrumentalized" and "weaponized" trade and finance, completely disregarded market laws, flourished trade protectionism, artificially created trade barriers, undermined international trade rules, and more and more deviated from the concept of globalization. Compared with the Trump administration, the Biden administration's political manipulation of economic policy is more than enough, deliberately highlighting the narrative of "democracy" and "authoritarianism", confusing the public, creating an exclusive small circle such as the "Semiconductor Alliance" and the "Democratic Countries Science and Technology Alliance", splitting the global market, and focusing on creating two parallel markets.

In the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States kicked Russian banks out of the SWIFT system, froze foreign exchange reserves, confiscated Russian overseas assets, and other acts, "weaponized" the US dollar, and used national security logic to suppress the capital logic on which globalization depends, resulting in a double decline in the confidence of foreign exchange reserves and the credibility of the US dollar in all countries in the world. Globalization may degenerate into regionalization and collectivization, using political identity and political grouping to divide the economic division of labor, and the political attributes of economic activities will become stronger and stronger. Under the general trend of the rise and fall of the international power pattern, the United States attempts to reshape the international economic order, that is, to destroy a domestically led but no longer in line with its own interests, and to establish a new order that is nationally led and in line with its own interests. However, this process has come at the cost of shaking the foundation of dollar hegemony and undermining international rules, which has actually depleted the economic position of the United States.

Global security saboteurs

In today's world, peace and development are the themes of the times, but the security threats facing all countries are becoming increasingly complex, and the threat of war is always lingering. A big country has a special and important responsibility in safeguarding global peace and security; if it bears the world in mind and cherishes the memory of the people, the peace of the world and the peace of the four seas are just around the corner, and the achievements are great; if it is selfish and selfish, and if it treats others with self-reliance, there will never be a peaceful day in the world and wars, and there will be endless harm. As the country with the strongest comprehensive national strength in the world today, the United States should have been a constructive force for global peace and security, but it has become a saboteur of global security by its overbearing laymen and often using force to show strength. From the war in Afghanistan to the war in Iraq to the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States has either directly charged into the battle or acted as a behind-the-scenes pusher, without showing the appearance of a big country.

It is undeniable that every State has security interests and the right to defend its own security interests. However, the international community is an indivisible community, and the security of one country cannot be based on the security of other countries, and part of the national security cannot be based on the damage to the national security of another part. Otherwise, it will eventually lead to the evil consequences of war and conflict. It can be said that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is a general outbreak of collision between NATO's step-by-step approach and russia's inability to retreat. Once the United States copies the "Ukrainian model" globally, creates a so-called "Asian NATO" or even a "global NATO", and arbitrarily harms the security interests of other countries, it will inevitably spread security threats and panic to the world, forcing small countries in the world to take sides, and the countries of the world are afraid to shift their priorities from development to security, and the security deficit will further deteriorate. As Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, has argued, what the United States is doing now could force the world into "pro-NATO" and "anti-NATO" camps, which will undermine the economic and political stability of the entire world.

It has been 30 years since the end of the Cold War, and some people in the United States have moved against the tide of the times, their bodies have entered the 21st century, their heads are still stuck in the Cold War era, they are stuck in the Cold War mentality, they are keen on creating opponents, pulling together gangs and factions, engaging in group politics and camp confrontation, and indulging in ideological prejudice and unable to extricate themselves. In the face of international and regional conflicts, some Americans do not exhort peace and promote talks, but instead do things that add fuel to the fire, instigate and instigate, and vigorously engage in arms diplomacy, which will lead to the bitter fruit of the rekindling of war on the European continent today and seriously undermine world peace and stability. For many years, wherever there has been war in the world, there has been the United States. Even if the United States did not directly participate in the war, it would not be difficult to find American weapons and equipment on the battlefield. The belligerent thinking and nature of the United States have intensified geopolitical confrontation, seriously threatened international security, and eventually led to fierce confrontation and made the world a miasma and chaos.

Faced with the challenges of governance deficit, trust deficit, development deficit, and peace deficit in the international community, the United States, as the most powerful country in the world, instead of providing positive public goods to the world, has instead followed the old Cold War model of seeking a unipolar world power structure, promoting dualistic camp confrontation, building a military alliance for unilateral security, and discursive hegemony in pursuit of a single value judgment, and has become a destroyer of world peace, an obstacle to global development, and a subversive of the international order. On the surface, this is a reinforcement of us global hegemony, but in fact it is an obedient move that goes against history and the trend of the times, and will only lift a stone to drop on its own feet and accelerate the fall of its own hegemony.

Guangming Daily (2022-05-05 15 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily