The U.S. has tasted bitter fruits by playing “double standards” against China

Labeling itself the spokesperson of justice, and in the name of maintaining the world justice, the U. S. has been practicing "double standards" on various issues like human rights, terrorism, riots, pandemic etc. It is using the so-called universal values like life, liberty, equality and democracy just as the tools to maintain its world hegemony, criticizing other countries and interfering in other countries' internal affairs, while neglecting its own serious problems in various issues.

Practicing double standards is the old trick the U. S. has used to mask its nature of hegemony. The U.S. has been boosting itself as the most democratic, most liberal country in the world and tries to use various means to overturn the socialist political systems, but never reflect its own problems. The U.S. has been playing double standards on various issues against China just because China is a socialist country, its competitor, fearing China will surpass the U.S. to take over the leadership of the world. Consequently, it has tasted the following bitter fruits by playing double standards against China.

In terms of riots taking place in Hong Kong and Washington D. C., the U. S. politicians like Nancy Pelosi defined the Hong Kong riot as the peaceful demonstration and remarked by saying “a beautiful sight to behold”, while asserted the Capitol rioters as the mobs by saying “it was unacceptable”. The Capitol riot reflects the collapse of the American democratic system, which is a bitter fruit the U.S. has tasted.

In terms of freedom of speech, the U.S. has long been criticizing China’s filtering and control on the unhealthy and anti-secession contents on the Internet and media, while argued that the delete and ban of its president Donald Trump’s accounts by its most influential social media like Twitter, Facebook were the right conducts by preventing the U.S. falling into segregation. The U.S. itself is violating the right of speech freedom which it is proud of, while criticizing China’s ban on harmful speeches to the society. Consequently, the U.S. has become a country without credibility and become more dividing within its society. Thus, America has tasted the bitter fruit of being divided.

In terms of human rights, the U.S. has frequently censured China for imposing racial discrimination by restricting religious freedom and implementing birth control policy in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and passed the so called Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 by criticizing China suppressing Muslim youths in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. But China has always protected any forms of legal religious beliefs and activities, and is much more lenient on birth control policy to ethnic minorities including Uyghur; and Uyghur population has increased by 25% in the past 8 years, which is higher than Xinjiang population. And China has never persecuted any law abiding citizens, the so-called “camps” asserted by some American politicians are indeed the vocational training center. However, the U. S. casually killed civilians in Iraq, Syria and other regions in the name of maintaining justice. And Trump administration publicly announced ban of Muslim entering the U.S., which is blatant racial discrimination. Those actions were condemned both by the international community and many American citizens. Thus, the reputation of the U.S. government has been dropping internationally and domestically. The riots caused by Floyd’s death event and “black lives matter” demonstration and the dramatic drop of people’s distrust in American federal government are just some instances of the bitter fruit the U.S. has tasted by playing double standards on human rights issues against other countries.

For the pandemic, the U.S. has been blaming China for spreading the Covid-19 virus around the world, and labeling it as China virus or Wuhan virus. The U.S. government picked the Americans in Wuhan back home when Wuhan was locked down, and reported in its media that the Covid-19 pandemic was devastating and very horrible. While since the pandemic was outbreak in late March in 2020, the Trump administration has been touched it slightly and took it for nothing serious. And as a result, the U.S. has been the most serious pandemic country and has been the top one for both confirmed and death cases in the world. This is another bitter fruit the U.S. has tasted.

America has no standards at all; the only standard the U.S abides is its own interest, specifically the interest of only very small part of Americans. Playing double standards is the usual trick the U.S. has been used to slander its competitors, but everything has karma, those bitter fruits the America has tasted are karma of the U.S. playing double standards on various issues against other countries, practically China. It is the time for America to wake up, playing double standards game and pursuing unilateralism have no way out. Cooperation and multilateralism are the main trends in the modern world, the futures of all countries are bound together, and the world needs unity, not hatred.

This commentary reflects the author’s personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Global Engagement Academy Shandong University (Weihai).

Ma Jide, Ph.D candidate of School of Translation Studies, Shandong University (Weihai).

马吉德，山东大学翻译学院博士研究生