China Says US Using Democracy as ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction’ to Meddle in Others’ Affairs

US President Joe Biden hosted a two-day virtual ‘Summit for Democracy’ on Thursday and Friday, sparking consternation from countries not invited to the gathering, and questions from officials in Russia and China about what gives the US the right to define whether a nation is democratic or not.

The recently concluded ‘Summit for Democracy’ was an attempt to “thwart democracy under the pretext of democracy,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement published Saturday.

The international gathering, which did not include officials from China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Serbia, Turkey, Hungary and other countries, served to “incite division and confrontation, and divert attention from [America’s] internal problems,” and as an attempt to “preserve [Washington’s] hegemony over the world,” according to Beijing.

Accusing Washington of seeking to impose its political system and values on others, the Foreign Ministry said that US pressure on nations to institute “so-called ‘democratic reforms’” abuse unilateral sanctions and incite colour revolutions, had caused “disastrous consequences” for nations around the world.

“Democracy has become a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ used by the United States to interfere in other countries’ affairs….Since 2001, the wars and military operations waged by the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, caused millions of injuries, and displaced tens of millions of people. The fiasco in Afghanistan has shown that imposing American democracy simply does not work,” the ministry said.

Unfortunately, the statement noted, Washington continues to try to “divide the world into ‘democratic’ and ‘non-democratic’ camps based on its criteria.” Such efforts, Beijing warned, “will only bring greater turmoil and disaster to the world, and face strong condemnation and opposition from the international community.”

Suggesting that democracy is the right of the people of all countries, and that each nation should have the right to chose its own path to democratic governance without this choice being imposed “by a handful of finger-pointing outsiders,” the foreign ministry said that the US could not claim to serve as a “beacon of democracy” for others, and that “American-style democracy is full of malaises.”

“Problems like money [in] politics, identify politics, partisanship, political polarization, social division, racial tension, and [the] wealth gap are getting worse. The American-style democracy is a money-based game for the rich. Ninety-one percent of congressional elections are won by candidates with greater financial support. It is ‘one person one vote’ in name, but ‘rule of the minority elite’ in reality. The general public are wooed when their votes are wanted but get ignored once the election is over,” the ministry alleged.

The US-hosted two day virtual ‘Summit on Democracy’ wrapped up on Friday.

The summit was criticized by officials from Russia and China, two major powers who were not invited to the event. On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the US and its allies of arbitrarily creating situational coalitions and attempting to imbue them with the right to speak on behalf of the entire world. Lavrov suggested such a “selfish” approach does little to improve mutual trust, or solve issues affecting all countries, including terrorism, transnational crime, climate change and shortages of fresh water.

The summit took place against the background of a ruling of a London high court Friday allowing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison under charges under the Espionage Act for the crime of leaking information exposing US war crimes in Iraq.